CDC ECHPP Plans Released

Earlier this year, HIV.gov reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had launched a website for its Enhanced Comprehensive HIV Prevention Planning (ECHPP)

initiative, which provided $11.6 million in FY2011 for enhanced planning and coordination activities in the 12 Metropolitan and Statistical Areas (MSA) accounting for an estimated 44% of U.S. AIDS cases in 2007.

Today the CDC added to its listing of executive summaries by posting the complete ECHPP plans from the initial year of the project for each of the 12 funded MSAs, including: Atlanta, GA; Baltimore, MD; Chicago, IL; Washington, DC; Houston and Dallas, TX; Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA; Miami, FL; New York City, NY; Philadelphia, PA; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Additionally, the templates provided to ECHPP grantees are posted on a separate summary page along with a description of the process for using them.

The release of these plans represents an important step forward, as it permits the public to review key components and innovations built into several of the plans, including the use of mathematical modeling to optimize resource allocation, build new collaborations, and tailor packages of high-impact prevention interventions. Other communities and jurisdictions can benefit by looking at these approaches and customizing them to their own local epidemics.

At the same time, CDC’s release of the ECHPP applications also advances the goals of the 12-Cities Project, which seeks to improve coordination across the federal government to implement HIV prevention, care and treatment activities to support of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. Indeed, the HHS Office of HIV/AIDS Policy (OHAP) competitively awarded a contract earlier this year to evaluate what, if any, changes have occurred in the federal collaboration and coordination in the implementation of the NHAS in these twelve jurisdictions. The project is now underway and results are expected in Fall, 2012. Findings from this evaluation—as well as the details contained in the posted plans—can be used by communities across the United States to enhance HIV planning efforts and align them more closely with the goals of the NHAS. In fact, many of the elements of ECHPP have been incorporated into CDC’s recently released funding announcement for state and local health departments which will provide over $350 million dollars to support HIV prevention activities across the United States.