Ending the HIV Epidemic: 6 Indicators. 4 Strategies. 1 Goal – The AHEAD Dashboard
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HIV data are a critical part of the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative, enabling us to measure progress against common goals, prioritize resources effectively, and assess gaps in prevention efforts.
The initiative relies on four strategies to achieve our goal of ending the HIV epidemic in the U.S. by 2030:
- Diagnose all people with HIV as early as possible.
- Treat people with HIV rapidly and effectively to reach sustained viral suppression.
- Prevent new HIV transmissions by using proven interventions, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and syringe services programs (SSPs).
- Respond quickly to potential HIV outbreaks to get needed prevention and treatment services to people who need them.
The EHE initiative also identified six corresponding HIV indicators to help quantify progress being made towards EHE goals: incidence, knowledge of status, diagnoses, linkage to HIV medical care, viral suppression, and PrEP coverage.
These indicators are the heart of America’s HIV Epidemic Analysis Dashboard (AHEAD), an online tool which visualizes jurisdictional progress towards meeting 2025 and 2030 targets for each indicator.
The indicators allow us to define measurable goals for key EHE strategies, monitor and report on progress, and ultimately increase accountability and improve HIV programs and results.
The Diagnose strategy is associated with the diagnoses and knowledge of status indicators. For this strategy, it is essential to conduct more HIV testing to diagnose individuals living with HIV so they know their HIV status and can be linked to care if they are HIV-positive.
The Treat strategy is associated with the linkage to HIV medical care and viral suppression indicators. For this strategy, rapidly linking an individual with diagnosed HIV to lifesaving medical care and treatment is essential to controlling the virus. Viral suppression or maintaining a low amount of the HIV virus in a person’s blood, means living a healthier, longer life and effectively carries no risk of passing HIV to sexual partners.
The Prevent strategy is associated with the PrEP coverage indicator. For this strategy, it is essential that PrEP reaches the populations who can benefit from it and when taken daily can prevent HIV transmission to someone who is HIV-negative.
The Respond strategy empowers jurisdictions to evaluate and analyze where and why outbreaks are still occurring and direct resources where they are most urgently needed.
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