Trump Administration May Close CDC’s HIV Prevention Division
HIV prevention advocates worry about the possible effects of defunding federal HIV prevention programs.
The Trump administration is considering a plan to eliminate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of HIV Prevention.
The CDC provides approximately $1 billion per year on domestic HIV prevention, funneling funds to states and territories, who then distribute it to local health departments and organizations.
The money primarily goes toward testing efforts to detect and respond to HIV outbreaks, carrying out campaigns to educate the public about the disease, and to encourage the adoption of prevention methods, including condoms and the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to reduce chances of transmission.
The discussion of cuts to the Division of HIV Prevention, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, comes amid the Trump administration’s efforts to cut federal spending and is considered part of a larger effort to restructure not only the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services, but the entire federal government.
Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for HHS, told Politico that the department “is following the Administration’s guidance and taking a careful look at all divisions to see where there is overlap that could be streamlined to support the President’s broader efforts to restructure the federal government.”
Nixon said the aim of the possible restructuring “is to ensure that HHS better serves the American people at the highest and most efficient standard.” But he also noted that no final decision has been made on the matter, nor have the logistics of such a reorganization been finalized.
An HHS source who was granted anonymity to speak freely told NBC News that if the Division of HIV Prevention is eliminated, the HIV prevention work would likely be moved over to another program at HHS, such as the CDC’s Health Resources and Services Administration. That division administers the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, which provides medical care, medications, and support services to low-income individuals living with HIV.
Another potential plan, the source said, would cut as much as $700 million from the Division of HIV Prevention.
The proposed restructuring is a stark turnaround from how the first Trump administration tackled the HIV epidemic.
One of Trump’s accomplishments, which he touted when running for reelection in 2020, was launching the “Ending the HIV Epidemic” initiative, which sought to reduce the number of new HIV infections in the United States by 90 percent by 2030. The initiative has previously been credited with reducing the number of yearly HIV infections by 7,000 from 2016 to 2022, the last year for which data is available.
Yearly HIV infections currently stand at more than 30,000 per year, with approximately 31,800 HIV infections reported in the United States in 2022.
HIV prevention advocates have balked at the proposed elimination of the division, warning that the reorganization could threaten critical public health programs and reverse the progress made in stemming the epidemic.
Many of those organizations warned that defunding the Division of HIV Prevention’s programs would likely lead to an increase in new HIV cases but would also burden the healthcare system with billions in preventable costs.
Noting that a person living with HIV incurs average lifetime costs of $500,000 over their lifetime, an increase of only 40 new HIV infections per state every year would exceed the money allegedly “saved” by the proposed budget cuts.
They claim that, without a dedicated division focusing on HIV prevention, the number of new cases is likely not only to increase but exceed that number.
“We are deeply concerned by the Trump administration’s reckless moves to defund and deprioritize HIV prevention,” a coalition of CEOs from 13 HIV prevention and LGBTQ organizations said in a statement. “These abrupt and incomprehensible possible cuts threaten to reverse decades of progress, exposing our nation to a resurgence of a preventable disease with devastating and avoidable human and financial costs… [We] will be thrust back into an HIV epidemic reminiscent of the darkest chapters in public health history.”
The CEOs signing onto the letter represent groups such as APLA Health in Los Angeles, the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in New York, Fenway Health in Boston, Philadelphia’s Mazzoni Center, and D.C.’s Whitman-Walker Health.
NMAC, an HIV prevention advocacy organization, also warned of the potential negative impacts of the proposed cuts.
“Community programs are at risk — Many local HIV education, testing, support programs and health care workers rely on CDC funding,” the organization said in a statement. “Without it, countless people will lose access to life-saving services and healthcare workers will lose their jobs. Existing and emerging HIV prevention and HIV testing technologies mean nothing if at-risk communities can’t access them. Federal funding for HIV prevention is necessary to ensure those who need these tools the most have access.”
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