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U.S. moves closer to forming national HIV/AIDS strategy
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Multiple approaches and integrated strategies will be the cornerstone of a U.S. national HIV/AIDS plan, according to a panel of experts who recently delivered presentations at the National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta.
“Combating HIV involves many tools and approaches that are complementary,” said Jeffrey S. Crowley, MPH, Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy and Senior Advisor on Disability Policy. “There is not one magic bullet.”
Crowley said that an important goal was to inject HIV/AIDS back into the national conversation, and that the plan should be accessible not just to medical experts or people with HIV, but to the population as a whole.
“We want a lay person to be able to read and understand this strategy,” Crowley said.
In an interview with Infectious Disease News, Crowley cited examples of how this might be accomplished. “We worked with CDC to launch the Act Against AIDS campaign,” he said. “This conveys that all Americans have a stake in ending the HIV epidemic.”
Key players
The panel included several other key players on the National HIV/AIDS stage:
- Faye Malitz, MPH, director of the division of science and policy at the HIV/AIDS bureau in the Health Resources & Service Administration.
- Beverly Watts Davis, senior policy advisor on substance abuse policy in the Office of the Administrator in Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration.
- David Vos, director of the office of HIV/AIDS housing at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
- Kevin A. Fenton, MD, PhD, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention at CDC.
- Carl Dieffenbach, PhD, director of the division of AIDS at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH.
Malitz focused her comments on disparities, specifically in terms of services and linkage to care. “We have not succeeded if we have provided to much in one area and not enough in another area,” she said. “We need to link all populations to care.”
Davis said that it is necessary to “be creative” in developing a national plan. “Combating this disease is going to require some unlikely partnerships,” she said. “It is necessary to move away from the silo approach and integrate strategies from all facets of the community. Ideally, one of the key goals will be to have research and practice meet.”
Vos discussed the pervasive role of housing in the battle against HIV/AIDS. “Housing is prevention,” he said. “Housing is health care. Housing is wellness. Perhaps most importantly, housing signifies a level of dignity that is crucial in caring for people with HIV.”
Fenton, who is also a member of the Infectious Disease News editorial board, addressed many aspects of what the national plan should entail, including the integration of research, resources and partnerships. He also cited his experiences with developing a similar program in the United Kingdom. “We expanded the plan so that it became a national HIV and sexual health strategy,” Fenton said. “We integrated efforts across diseases, and this allowed us to bring evidence-based strategies to all facets of the population.”
Dieffenbach also discussed a cross-section of challenges and strategies in his address to the conference and in an interview with Infectious Disease News. He said that the problems surrounding HIV/AIDS are many, and stressed the importance of prioritizing. “The fight against this disease is going to be won in a series of increments,” he said. “We need to understand the highest priorities and work toward them. If our efforts are too unfocused, we will find ourselves in a position where all priorities become no priorities.” – by Rob Volansky