New Campaign Seeks to Improve Health of People with HIV and Prevent New Transmissions

Cross-posted from HHS Press Office

NEW CAMPAIGN SEEKS TO IMPROVE HEALTH OF PEOPLE WITH HIV AND PREVENT NEW TRANSMISSIONS

Community members share how HIV medication helps them achieve and maintain viral suppression

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched a national campaign called “I am a Work of ART,” to encourage people with HIV who are not in care to seek and stay in care and achieve viral suppression.

“Everyone with HIV can stay healthy and achieve their potential through HIV medicine called antiretroviral therapy (ART). When taken as prescribed, ART allows people with HIV to protect their health as well as the health of others,” said ADM Rachel L. Levine, MD, Assistant Secretary for Health. “‘I am a Work of ART’ focuses on the positive benefits of being virally suppressed.”

People with HIV who take ART as prescribed to achieve and remain virally suppressed can live long, healthy lives and will not transmit HIV to their HIV-negative partners through sex.

The campaign features individuals with HIV from different backgrounds—cisgender, transgender, Black, Latino, American Indian, younger, and older—who share their stories about living and thriving as a “Work of ART.”

“By engaging the community, including those with lived experience, local leadership, and providers in strategic locations across the country, we collectively release ‘I am a Work of ART’ to help the people who need it most,” said Kaye Hayes, MPA, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Infectious Disease and Director of the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy.

A full summer of campaign activities is planned, including a June 18 roundtable discussion among the campaign’s creative partners, facilitated by Harold Phillips, Director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy.

Viral suppression is a key strategy of OIDP and the entire federal government under the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (2022-2025) (NHAS) and the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. (EHE) initiative. Both the NHAS and EHE initiatives aim to reduce new HIV infections in the United States by 90% by 2030.

For more information about the ‘I am a Work of ART’ campaign, visit HIV.gov/ART.