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CDC awards grants to health departments for HIV prevention
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The CDC will award nearly $339 million to state and local health departments to fund HIV prevention activities throughout 2012, according to a press release.
Designed to increase the effect of every federal HIV prevention dollar spent, the awards will be administered during year 1 of a 5-year funding cycle.
“With 50,000 new HIV infections every year and a tough economic environment, the need to do more with existing resources is greater than ever,” Kevin A. Fenton, MD, director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, and Infectious Disease News Editorial Board member, said in the press release. “This new approach to prevention funding is designed to focus on the places where needs are most urgent and on the programs that will have the most far-reaching impact. It will help us achieve the ambitious goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy with the efficiency and urgency the HIV epidemic demands.”
Funds were awarded to health departments across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, eight US territories and eight cities where HIV infection has burdened the population. The CDC is currently reviewing applications to award an additional $20 million to health departments by March to implement innovative HIV prevention demonstration projects.
Besides the funding, the CDC will also provide health departments with new, specific guidance for prioritizing the most effective prevention programs expected to have the greatest effect on decreasing new HIV infections.
“State and local health departments are the backbone of the nation’s HIV prevention efforts,” Jonathan Mermin, MD, director of CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, said in the press release. “This latest round of funding will help them lead the nation to slow, and ultimately end, the HIV epidemic in the United States — a public health imperative that could finally be achieved.”
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