HHS Releases HIV National Strategic Plan, a Roadmap to Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S.

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the HIV National Strategic Plan for the United States: A Roadmap to End the Epidemic 2021-2025 (PDF, 1.7MB) (HIV Plan). The HIV Plan was developed in collaboration with our many federal and community partners.

The HIV Plan lays out a clear vision:

The United States will be a place where new HIV infections are prevented, every person knows their status, and every person with HIV has high-quality care and treatment and lives free from stigma and discrimination.

This vision includes all people, regardless of age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, geographic location, or socioeconomic circumstance

“The HIV Plan builds on the lessons learned and progress made over the last decade under the nation’s first two National HIV/AIDS Strategies,” observed Kaye Hayes, Acting Director of the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy. “This five-year HIV Plan seeks to leverage recent advances and new opportunities to address the challenges that remain, providing a roadmap for all HIV stakeholders to continue strengthening our coordinated response to HIV as we work together to end the HIV epidemic in the United States by 2030.”

The HIV Plan details four goals to guide federal and nonfederal efforts alike:

1. Prevent new HIV infections.
2. Improve HIV-related health outcomes of people with HIV.
3. Reduce HIV-related disparities and health inequities.
4. Achieve integrated and coordinated efforts that address the HIV epidemic among all partners and stakeholders.

For stakeholders across the nation, the HIV Plan:

• Articulates objectives and strategies for each goal.
• Identifies priority populations disproportionately impacted by HIV so that federal agencies and other stakeholders can focus efforts and resources to achieve the greatest impact.
• Sets forth eight core indicators to monitor progress and a disparity indicator to measure progress toward reducing significant HIV-related disparities.

The HIV Plan was developed collaboratively by federal partners from six federal departments and 12 HHS agencies and offices through a process led by the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health and its Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy (OIDP). Significant community input was gathered throughout the development process to inform and refine the HIV Plan.

The HIV Plan and the Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America (EHE) initiative are closely aligned and complementary, sharing the overarching goal of reducing new HIV infections in the United States by 90% by 2030. EHE is an HHS initiative that is geographically focused on the jurisdictions with the most new HIV diagnoses and will be a leading component of the work by the Department to implement the HIV Plan. The HIV Plan covers the entire country, has a broader focus across federal departments and agencies beyond HHS, seeks to engage all sectors of society, and addresses the integration of several key elements that are vital to our collective work to end the HIV epidemic, including stigma and discrimination, social determinants of health, and the syndemic of HIV, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections, and substance use disorders.

We encourage stakeholders to review the HIV Plan and consider how community, clinic, local, state, and federal activities can be aligned with the vision, goals, and objectives detailed in it. A federal implementation plan will be developed in the coming months detailing federal partners’ commitments to policies, initiatives, and activities to meet the goals of the HIV Plan. The federal implementation plan will also include details on the definitions, specifications, and targets for the indicators of progress.

Learn more about and access the HIV Plan on HIV.gov.