2006 Policy Priorities:
Bringing an End to AIDS

2006 State Policy Priorities

2. Expand HIV Prevention: AFC is calling for a minimum increase of $1 million in state funding for HIV prevention services. The state should direct new dollars to the priority interventions and at-risk populations identified by its statewide and regional planning groups, which include HIV prevention experts, community leaders, and people living with and at risk for HIV.

Community Planning Needs: Illinois has taken important steps to respond to the epidemic, including the new BASUAH campaign to promote HIV awareness and testing among African Americans, but more remains to be done. State funding for community-based HIV prevention services has remained stagnant over the past several years and federal resources have declined significantly.

The Chicago HIV Prevention Planning Group and the Illinois Prevention Community Planning Group collect and analyze information on the community areas and target populations throughout the state with the most pressing HIV prevention needs. The data they collect on health disparities help inform public health policy and the distribution of scarce government funding for HIV prevention. AFC recommends that the state collaborate with the planning groups to ensure that critically needed prevention dollars reach the individuals who need services most. A $1 million increase in prevention funds would augment critical prevention and education services for communities most at risk for HIV in Illinois.

Mirroring national trends, a majority of recently diagnosed cases in Illinois are among people of color and half of all new infections are believed to occur among individuals under age 25. Unprotected sexual contact remains the leading mode of transmission, especially among men of all races who have sex with other men. Injection drug use accounts for about a quarter of all HIV/AIDS cases. Housing instability and homelessness, poverty, and a history of incarceration are closely associated with high-risk behaviors and acquisition of HIV.

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Introduction

State Policy Priorities

Treatment Access

HIV Prevention

HIV and Incarceration

Federal Policy Priorities

Healthcare for PWAs

Science-Based Prevention

Housing

Illinois Statistics

Additional Statistics