Public health officials: Ending the HIV epidemic is in sight. We can't stop now.
This critical legislation, named in honor of young AIDS activist Ryan White, marked a turning point in our fight against HIV. It wasn't just a humanitarian response; it was sound public health policy. Within that decade, the spread of HIV, the progression of HIV to AIDS and the mortality rates due to AIDS all peaked and have been declining ever since. Funding channeled through state and city agencies such as the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), the Cook County Department of Pubic Health (CCDPH) and the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), alongside direct support to community organizations, made medical treatment and support services accessible, especially for low-income individuals.
Coupled with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant programs for monitoring, testing and prevention with lifesaving tools such as the prophylaxis medicines PrEP and Doxy PEP, we've built a robust system that works.
It is thanks to this funding and the work of hundreds of epidemiology teams at local health agencies including IDPH, CCDPH and CDPH that we have data that shows how many people have received an HIV diagnosis and how many people are receiving HIV care. Thirty-five years later, Chicago, Cook County and Illinois, along with the rest of the country, have seen a dramatic decrease in new diagnoses thanks to these prevention, testing and treatment programs. We also see higher percentages of those living with HIV getting vital care and treatment and living long, full lives.
But this progress is fragile. To pull back now would be a catastrophic mistake, especially for our most vulnerable communities. Despite hitting a significant low in new HIV cases, the burden of HIV/AIDS still falls disproportionately on communities of color. And while medical advancements allow those living with HIV to survive and thrive, their care demands continuous, costly services. More work is needed to see basic investment and improvements to HIV monitoring and infrastructure while also making use of more advanced technology.
Consider the immediate impact: In 2024 alone, nearly 14,000 Chicagoans and thousands more Illinoisans relied on Ryan White funding for their HIV care. A staggering 70% of those served by CDPH-funded programs are Black, Latino, or Hispanic — the very communities most affected by HIV/AIDS. The lifeline for these programs? Federal funding. In fact, more than 90% of CDPH's annual budget for managing infectious diseases, including HIV, comes directly from federal sources.
Yet, despite this clear success and urgent need, Washington, D.C., is debating draconian cuts to these vital programs in next year's budget, even threatening to rescind funds already allocated for 2025. The consequences of these cuts would be devastating. AmfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, projects that a 50% reduction in HIV prevention funding from the CDC could lead to 75,000 new HIV infections across the U.S. by 2030 — and that number would nearly double if all funding is eliminated.
Here in Illinois, we could face over 5,500 additional new HIV cases, leading to sicker populations and a tragic rise in deaths due to lack of treatment. Without these federal dollars, our neighbors would lose access to critical prevention tools such as PrEP, essential testing for HIV and sexually transmitted infections, and lifesaving treatments.
We stand at a crossroads. We have the knowledge, tools and proven programs to end the HIV epidemic. We are so close. To retreat now, when the finish line is in sight, would be an act of profound negligence.
We urge our elected officials in Washington, D.C., to reject these dangerous cuts and continue investing in the programs that protect the health and well-being of all Illinoisans. We cannot afford to backtrack and lose the tremendous progress that has been made in fighting HIV.
The health of our communities depends on it.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Medscape
8 hours ago
- Medscape
Fast Five Quiz: Sjögren Disease Differential Diagnoses
Learn more about oral dryness in Sjögren disease. Dry eye, or xerophthalmia, is another other classic symptom of Sjögren disease. Similarly, several factors can also cause dry eye, which must be ruled out for accurate diagnosis. For example, data indicate that androgen can significantly influence the lacrimal gland/tear production and overall optical health. Hypoandrogenemia is a known cause of dry eye along with Vitamin A deficiency; hyperandrogenemia is another known cause of dry eye, especially in females and those with polycystic ovary syndrome. Hypercalcemia, anemia, and Vitamin B deficiency are usually associated with dry mouth, rather than dry eye. Elevated CRP does not appear to be specifically associated with dry eye, and levels are usually normal in Sjogren disease. Learn more about dry eye in Sjögren disease. According to the most recent ACR classification guidelines, dry eyes and/or mouth must persist for more than 3 months after controlling for differential diagnoses. Their criteria suggest Sjögren disease can be confirmed by a classification score of at least 4 points from factors such as histology of the labial salivary gland (up to 3 points), detection of SS-A/Ro antibodies (3 points), pathological Schirmer test (1 point), whole saliva flow rate ≤ 0.1ml/min (1 point), and abnormal ocular staining score (1 point). Although various diseases can cause chronic dry eye, external factors such as drug use and environmental factors can be excluded upon resolution when the patient is removed from exposure. Learn more about classification criteria for Sjögren disease. Experts note that Sjogren disease is typically diagnosed based on 'the patient's subjective sicca symptoms if these cannot be explained by other differential diagnoses, after excluding certain diseases and using the objective classification criteria.' Graft versus host disease, along with amyloidosis, sarcoidosis, HIV, HCV, and history of head and neck radiation therapy, is specifically recommended by the ACR classification system to be excluded when diagnosing Sjögren disease. Further, pre‐existing lymphoma is no longer part of this exclusion criteria. Although fatigue is common in both Sjogren disease and fibromyalgia, presentation of subjective sicca usually prompts the differential diagnosis for Sjögren disease in the ACR classification. Chronic pancreatitis and rheumatic fever are also not typically associated with sicca symptoms. Learn more about differential diagnosis for Sjögren disease. Contrast is a rare but often overlooked cause of salivary gland enlargement, another characteristic Sjogren disease symptom. It is most often associated with iodine contrast media, leading to its nickname of 'Iodide mumps.' Other potential causes of salivary gland enlargement include several types of infections and inflammatory conditions, neoplasms, and immunosuppression. Though parotid enlargement can occur with gadolinium use, the association is not as frequent as iodine. Barium and microbubble use have not been consistently shown to directly cause parotid enlargement. Learn more about parotid gland enlargement in Sjögren disease. Editor's Note: This article was created using several editorial tools, including generative AI models, as part of the process. Human review and editing of this content were performed prior to publication. Lead image: Peakstock/Science Source
CNBC
10 hours ago
- CNBC
$9.7 million of U.S.-funded contraceptives for poor nations to be burned in France: Reuters
U.S.-funded contraceptives worth nearly $10 million are being sent to France from Belgium to be incinerated, after Washington rejected offers from the United Nations and family planning organizations to buy or ship the supplies to poor nations, two sources told Reuters. A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday that a decision had been taken to destroy the stock. The supplies have been stuck for months in a warehouse in Geel, a city in the Belgian province of Antwerp, following President Donald Trump's decision to freeze U.S. foreign aid in January. They comprise contraceptive implants and pills as well as intrauterine devices to help prevent unwanted pregnancies, according to seven sources and a screengrab shared by an eighth source confirming the planned destruction. The U.S. government will spend $167,000 to incinerate the stocks at a facility in France that handles medical waste, the U.S. State Department confirmed. The spokesperson said that a preliminary decision had been made to destroy certain products from terminated U.S. Agency for International Development contracts. "Only a limited number of commodities have been approved for disposal," the spokesperson said via email, adding that no condoms or HIV medications would be destroyed. U.S. lawmakers have introduced two bills this month to prevent the destruction of the supplies following Trump's decision to shut down USAID, but aid groups say the bills are unlikely to be passed in time to stop the incineration. The Belgian foreign ministry said Brussels had held talks with U.S. authorities and "explored all possible options to prevent the destruction, including temporary relocation." "Despite these efforts, and with full respect for our partners, no viable alternative could be secured. Nevertheless, Belgium continues to actively seek solutions to avoid this regrettable outcome," it said in a statement shared with Reuters on Tuesday. "Sexual and reproductive health must not be subject to ideological constraints," it added. The supplies, worth $9.7 million, are due to expire between April 2027 and September 2031, according to an internal document listing the warehouse stocks and verified by three sources. Sarah Shaw, Associate Director of Advocacy at MSI Reproductive Choices, told Reuters the non-profit organization had volunteered to pay for the supplies to be repackaged without USAID branding and shipped to countries in need, but the offer was declined by the U.S. government. "MSI offered to pay for repackaging, shipping and import duties but they were not open to that... We were told that the U.S. government would only sell the supplies at the full market value," said Shaw. She did not elaborate on how much the NGO was prepared to pay, but said she felt the rejection was based on the Trump's administration's more restrictive stance on abortion and family planning. "This is clearly not about saving money. It feels more like an ideological assault on reproductive rights, and one that is already harming women." She added that many countries in sub-Saharan Africa had relied on USAID for access to contraception and that the aid cuts would lead to a rise in unsafe abortions. The United Nations' sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, also offered to buy the contraceptives outright, three sources told Reuters, without disclosing the financial terms of the proposal. However, negotiations broke down, a source with knowledge of the talks said, in part due to a lack of response from the U.S. government. UNFPA declined to comment. One of the sources with knowledge of the issue said that the Trump administration was acting in accordance with the Mexico City policy, an anti-abortion pact in which Trump reinstated U.S. participation in January. The pact forbids the U.S. government from contributing to or working with organizations providing funding or supplies that offer access to abortions. The source said there was no way for the U.S. government to ensure that UNFPA would not share the contraceptives with groups offering abortions, violating the Mexico City policy. The State Department also told Reuters these were factors in their decision on Wednesday, and added that it had avoided $34.1 million in costs by cancelling other orders placed under the Biden administration. The source also said the matter was complicated by the fact that the contraceptives in Belgium were embossed with the USAID trademark and Washington did not want any USAID-branded supplies to be rerouted elsewhere. UNFPA did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the concerns raised by the source. One of the two sources who told Reuters the stocks of contraceptives were being trucked to France said it would likely take dozens of truckloads and at least two weeks to move the supplies out of the Geel warehouse, with a third source also confirming the scale of the operation. The French government did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Chemonics, the contractor managing the supply chain for USAID's family planning program, declined to comment on the plans to destroy the supplies.
Geek Wire
13 hours ago
- Geek Wire
UW researchers discover AI-powered breakthrough that could boost precision cancer treatment
The co-lead authors of a study publishing today in Science describing AI-designed proteins for target health theraphies, from left: Julia Bonzanini, Nathan Greenwood and Bingxu Liu. All are researchers with UW Medicine's Institute for Protein Design. (IPD Photo) A breakthrough in the science used to customize the treatment of cancer and other diseases is so promising that researchers at the University of Washington are planning to launch a company to commercialize the technology. The strategy uses artificial intelligence to create proteins that recognize and bind to specific markers on diseased cells, creating what are essentially biological neon signs that attract immune cells to destroy the targets. The research comes from the lab of Nobel laureate David Baker and UW Medicine's Institute for Protein Design, which Baker leads, and is being published today in the journal Science. Additional study authors come from multiple UW departments, the Garcia Lab at Stanford University, and the Scheinberg Lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. 'Detecting unhealthy cells is one of the main jobs of the immune system, but it doesn't always notice the subtle signs of cancer or viral infection,' Baker said in a statement. 'In this study, we show that computer-designed proteins can help human immune cells spot the right targets and function more effectively.' The work could lead to significant advancements in precision immunotherapy, which delivers disease-fighting drugs that are crafted for individual patients. The key to this personalized approach lies in understanding how cells display their identity on their surfaces. The outside membrane of a cell is studded with molecules that include small proteins called peptides that reveal a cell's inner workings, including if it's cancerous or infected by a virus such as HIV. The scientists used RFdiffusion and ProteinMPNN — AI-tools built by the Institute for Protein Design — to efficiently and cheaply engineer proteins that recognize the unique peptides. University of Washington biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate David Baker at his office in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Lisa Stiffler) The custom-made proteins can then be integrated into chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), which are engineered molecules that attract and activate immune-system warriors called T cells to attack specific targets. In their study, the researchers designed proteins for 11 peptide targets and eight successfully triggered a T-cell response. Of those eight, two produced such a strong immune response that the T cells killed the targeted cells. The peptide targets included HIV fragments and tumor-related protein mutations. 'We've shown how advances in protein design could make personalized cancer therapy possible, and we intend to start a company to turn these results into real therapies that benefit patients,' said Bingxu Liu, co-lead author of the study and postdoctoral scholar in the Baker Lab. Since 2014, the Institute for Protein Design has spun off 10 startups, and Baker has co-founded 21 tech companies. When Baker won the Nobel Prize in October, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences noted that 'his research group has produced one imaginative protein creation after another, including proteins that can be used as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors.' The researchers involved in the latest study explained that the strategy can be easily adapted to new scenarios. Within days, the team was able to take one of its successful proteins and use AI to modify it to target new cancer and virus-associated peptides. The process could make it much cheaper to create personalized treatments. 'I'm hopeful that this will lead to new therapies that are more accessible to patients around the world who do not benefit from current state-of-the-art cancer treatments,' said Julia Bonzanini, a co-lead author and Baker Lab graduate student. Researchers worldwide can access online the open-source software used in the research. Other authors of the Science paper, titled 'Design of high-specificity binders for peptide–MHC-I complexes,' are Nathan Greenwood, Amir Motmaen, Jeremy Meyerberg, Tao Dao, Xinyu Xiang, Russell Ault, Jazmin Sharp, Chunyu Wang, Gian Marco Visani, Dionne Vafeados, Nicole Roullier, Armita Nourmohammad, David Scheinberg and Christopher Garcia. RELATED:
