AFC Commends Senator Durbin for Letter Concerning
New HIV Preventions Strategies

CHICAGO--In a June 17 letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, U.S. Senator Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) raised concerns about a new CDC initiative that may result in the agency reducing federal funds available to community-based organizations for HIV prevention services.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced plans in April to increase its focus on HIV testing and risk-reduction services for HIV-positive people. While supportive of the goals of the new initiative, AIDS advocacy groups nationwide expressed concern with the CDC’s plans to decrease funding available for HIV prevention education and risk-reduction activities in order to implement the new priorities. AIDS advocates also raised concerns with a recommendation making HIV counseling optional in the provision of HIV testing services.

In the letter, Durbin expresses support for the “overall goal of developing new strategies to slow the spread of HIV,” and states his “strong concerns about ways it might undercut successful efforts that are already underway.” The letter acknowledges the “dramatic reductions in infection rates” that resulted from primary HIV prevention and risk reduction services, including community and structural interventions. Durbin questioned whether the new initiative may “reduce our nation’s capacity to reach at-risk populations” by directing resources away from those interventions.

According to responses to a recent AIDS Foundation of Chicago survey, the new initiative could result in the Chicago metropolitan area losing more than $2 million in federal funds for primary HIV prevention activities. Currently funded activities reach thousands of high-risk individuals each year.

In the letter, Durbin also expresses concern about the initiative’s approach to HIV testing of pregnant women by weakening the linkage between HIV counseling and testing. He urges Secretary Thompson “to strengthen the CDC’s message to health care professionals to provide ongoing HIV counseling to all their patients, particularly pregnant women.”

The CDC unveiled its new initiative, called “Advancing HIV Prevention: New Strategies for a Changing Epidemic-United States 2003,” in the April 18, 2003 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Read AFC’s reaction to the initiative online.

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Established in 1985 to provide central leadership in the fight against the epidemic, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) promotes sound HIV/AIDS public policy, funds HIV/AIDS care and prevention projects, and through its Service Providers Council, helps to coordinate the delivery of essential HIV/AIDS services.

Senator Durbin's letter