Ending the HIV Epidemic Funding

Content From: Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy, HHS•Updated: October 24, 2024•24 min read

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President Biden Requests $593 Million in FY2025 to Support Continuation of the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative

On March 11, 2024, the White House published President Joe Biden’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget proposal, which includes $593 million in funding across CDC, HRSA, IHS, and NIH to support continued scale-up and implementation of the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. initiative. This represents a $20 million increase over the FY23 enacted funding level.
The specific funding amounts proposed by agency are:

$220 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
$332 million for the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
- $175 million to deliver HIV care through HRSA’s Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP)
- $157 million to provide HIV testing, linkage to care, and prescription of HIV PrEP and associated medical costs through HRSA’s Health Center Program
$15 million to the Indian Health Service (IHS) for an initiative to treat or reduce the transmission of HIV and HCV
$26 million for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for implementation research projects in the EHE jurisdictions

Congress is now considering the President’s request as part of its responsibility to complete the annual federal budget and appropriations process. Additional details about the EHE funding requests can be found in the HHS FY25 Budget in Brief and individual agency budget documents (CDC, HRSA, IHS, NIH).

Fiscal Year 2024 HHS Budget Resources for the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative

In late March 2023, Congress passed and President Biden signed the FY 2024 federal budget for October 1, 2023–September 30, 2024, which included a total of $573.25 million for implementation of the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. (EHE) initiative. These funds included:

$220 million for CDC to implement high impact HIV prevention and reduce new HIV infections.
$322.25 million for HRSA:
- $165 million to deliver HIV care through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program
- $157.25 million to expand access to HIV testing, linkage to care, and prescription of HIV PrEP and associated services through the Health Center Program.
$5 million to the IHS for diagnosis, prevention, and treatment initiatives for HIV, HCV, and STIs with the stipulation that the funds shall be used at the discretion of the Director of the IHS and remain available until expended.
$26 million for NIH for implementation research projects in the EHE jurisdictions.

The FY 2024 total appropriation was less than the $850 million requested in President Joe Biden’s FY 2024 budget proposal to support continued scale-up and implementation of the EHE initiative. Details on the President’s FY 2024 EHE funding request can be found in the HHS FY24 Budget in Brief and individual agency budget documents (CDC, HRSA, IHS, NIH).

With the appropriated resources, the following FY 2024 funding awards were made:

CDC awarded more than $126 million to state and local health departments in the 57 EHE jurisdictions to continue expanding HIV prevention and treatment efforts. This funding was awarded through the High-Impact HIV Prevention and Surveillance Programs for Health Departments (PS24-0047) program to provide disproportionately affected communities with additional expertise and resources to address the HIV epidemic locally. The funding will support expansion of HIV testing; linkage to treatment; HIV prevention approaches including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) efforts; and detection and outbreak response capacity. Funding was also awarded through the Support and Scale Up of HIV Prevention Services in Sexual Health Clinics (PS24-0003) for PrEP provision, staff training, and to provide prevention, treatment, and care for syndemic infections, which include HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Additional EHE funding supported external investments with national and community-based organizations to increase access to HIV-related services for critical populations including the expansion of HIV self-testing, the implementation of syndemic approaches, enhanced PrEP implementation, and provision of additional capacity building assistance for EHE jurisdictions. EHE resources also helped provide essential support to rapidly detect, evaluate, and respond to HIV clusters and outbreaks in EHE jurisdictions.
HRSA’s Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) awarded more than $157 million in continuation funding to over 400 health centers in EHE jurisdictions to expand prevention services to reduce HIV transmission risk, including HIV PrEP prescribing and management, HIV testing, patient outreach, care coordination, and associated services through the Health Center Program. Continuation funding was provided to health centers whose work in EHE jurisdictions began in FY 2020, FY 2021, FY 2022, and FY 2023. View a list of all Primary Care HIV Prevention (PCHP) health center award recipients.
IHS awarded $1.2 million in three-year cooperative agreements to seven tribal/urban Indian organizations to support work toward eliminating the syndemic of HIV, hepatitis C, and STIs in Indian Country. This cooperative agreement program, called Ending the HIV Epidemic in Indian Country (or ETHIC), enabled first-year awardees to increase HIV/HCV/STI testing in their communities, increase timely linkage to care, and attend HIV syndemic-related training to enhance knowledge of current best practices. Year two showed tremendous growth and development of the grantees’ syndemic programs, with increases in testing, screening, diagnosing, linkage to care, and treatment of syndemic conditions. The early successes of ETHIC led IHS to offer another funding opportunity for FY 2025, called ETHIC II with additional funding and up to 15 additional grantees. Read more about those awards. In addition, in FY 2024, with EHE funds, the IHS created the HIV/HCV/STI Branch within the Office of Clinical and Preventive Services at IHS Headquarters, hired a data analyst, a clinical nurse, a public health nurse/Great Plains Area Syndemic Coordinator, a management analyst, and two pharmacists. Finally, with EHE funds, the IHS offered targeted funding to federally-operated sites called Special Projects of National Significance to help with HIV/HCV/STI diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and response.
NIH made 12 new awards and continued support for 59 projects in their second year of funding, totaling $26 million for EHE-focused research awards*. The funding supports research projects in 41 of the EHE priority jurisdictions to strengthen research-community collaborations and enhance the implementation science knowledge base to end the HIV epidemic. It also includes support for coordination centers and regional consultation hubs. The research projects involve partnerships between investigators and local health officials and community groups in one or more EHE jurisdictions. View information about these and prior NIH EHE awards. (*Note that in FY24, NIH began funding larger multi-year projects.)

Fiscal Year 2023 HHS Budget Resources for the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative

In late December 2022, Congress passed, and President Biden signed the FY23 federal budget for October 1, 2022–September 30, 2023, which included a total of $573.25 million for implementation of the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. (EHE) initiative. These funds included:

$220 million for CDC to implement high impact HIV prevention and reduce new HIV infections.
$322.25 million for HRSA:
- $165 million to deliver HIV care through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program
- $157.25 millionto expand access to HIV testing, linkage to care, and prescription of HIV PrEP and associated services through the Health Center Program.
$5 million to the IHS for diagnosis, prevention, and treatment initiatives for HIV, HCV, and STIs with the stipulation that the funds shall be used at the discretion of the Director of the IHS and remain available until expended.
$26 million for NIH for implementation research projects in the EHE jurisdictions.

The FY23 total appropriation was less than the $850 million included in President Biden’s FY23 budget request to continue to scale up the initiative. Additional details about the FY23 EHE funding requests can be found in the HHS Budget in Brief and individual agency budget documents (CDC, HRSA, IHS, NIH).

With the appropriated resources, the following FY23 funding awards were made:

CDC awarded more than $107 million to state and local health departments in the 57 EHE jurisdictions to continue expanding HIV prevention and treatment efforts. This was the fourth round of annual funding awarded through the Integrated HIV Programs for Health Departments to Support Ending the HIV Epidemic in the United States (PS20-2010) program to provide disproportionately affected communities with additional expertise and resources to address the HIV epidemic locally. The funding will support expansion of HIV testing; linkage to treatment; HIV prevention approaches including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) efforts; and detection and outbreak response capacity. It also provides funding to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) clinics to provide prevention, treatment, and care for syndemic infections, which include HIV and other STIs. Additional EHE funding supported external investments with national and community-based organizations to employ innovative HIV prevention solutions such as expanding the distribution of rapid HIV self-test kits; expanding linkage to PrEP in non-traditional health care venues, such as SSPs; implementation of status neutral service delivery models that reach people in the places they prefer to seek care; and capacity building and technical assistance support for EHE jurisdictions. EHE resources also helped provide essential support to rapidly detect, evaluate, and respond to HIV clusters and outbreaks in EHE jurisdictions.
HRSA’s HIV/AIDS Bureau awarded more than $147 million to 49 Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program recipients to advance the EHE initiative. This funding will help states and metropolitan areas with the highest levels of HIV transmission link people with HIV to essential care, support, and treatment, as well as support training and other resources for these jurisdictions. The awards included nearly $139.1 million to metropolitan areas and states to implement strategies and interventions to provide medical and support services to reduce new HIV infections in the U.S. and $8 million to two nonprofit organizations to provide training and other resources to recipients of EHE funds. View a list of the funding recipients. Read HRSA’s announcement of the awards. In addition, HAB awarded $5 million to 11 Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program AIDS Education and Training Center (AETC) Program EHE recipients.
HRSA’s Bureau of Primary Health Care awarded more than $17.7 million in first-year funding to 46 health centers in EHE jurisdictions to support expanding access to HIV testing and PrEP services as well as linkage to HIV care. These awards expand the number of health centers focusing on HIV testing and prevention services in the 57 EHE jurisdictions to 411. View a list of all 46 of the new Primary Care HIV Prevention (PCHP) health center award recipients. In addition, HRSA awarded $139.7 million in PCHP continuation funding to 365 health centers whose work in EHE jurisdictions began in FY 2020, FY 2021, and FY 2022.
IHS awarded $1.2 million in three-year cooperative agreements to seven tribes, tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations to support work toward eliminating the syndemic of HIV, hepatitis C, and STIs in Indian Country. In the first year of the grant cycle, awardees were able to increase HIV/HCV/STI testing in their communities, increase timely linkage to care, and attend HIV syndemic related training to enhance knowledge of current best practices. Read more about those awards. In addition, the IHS Office of Clinical and Preventive Services, Division of Clinical and Community Services, hired a management analyst, two pharmacists and a Great Plains area coordinator for the IHS National HIV/HCV/STI Program, bringing the program staff to seven.
NIH made 52 new awards and continued support for 23 projects in their second year of funding, totaling $26 million for EHE-focused research awards. The funding supports research projects in 37 of the EHE priority jurisdictions to strengthen research-community collaborations and enhance the implementation science knowledge base needed to end the HIV epidemic. It also includes support for two coordinating centers and eight regional consultation hubs. The research projects involve partnerships between investigators and local health officials and community groups in one or more EHE jurisdictions. View information about these and prior NIH EHE awards.

Fiscal Year 2022 HHS Budget Resources for the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative

In March 2022, Congress passed and President Biden signed the fiscal year 2022 (FY2022) federal budget for October 1, 2021–September 30, 2022, which included $473.2 million for implementation of the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. (EHE) initiative. These funds included:

$195 million for CDC to implement high impact HIV prevention and reduce new HIV infections.
$247 million for HRSA:
- $125 million to deliver HIV care through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program
- $122 million to expand access to HIV testing, linkage to care, and prescription of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and associated services through the Health Center Program.
$5 million to the IHS for diagnosis, prevention, and treatment initiatives for HIV, HCV, and STIs with the stipulation that the funds shall be used at the discretion of the Director of the IHS and remain available until expended.
$26 million for the NIH for implementation research projects in the EHE jurisdictions.

The FY2022 total appropriation was less than the $670 million requested in President Biden’s FY2022 budget request.

With the appropriated resources, the following FY22 funding awards were made:

CDC awarded more than $120 million to state and local health departments in the 57 EHE jurisdictions to continue expanding HIV prevention and treatment efforts. This was the third round of annual funding awarded through the Integrated HIV Programs for Health Departments to Support Ending the HIV Epidemic in the United States (PS20-2010) program to provide disproportionately affected communities with additional expertise and resources to address the HIV epidemic locally. The funding will support expansion of HIV testing; linkage to treatment; HIV prevention approaches including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) efforts; and detection and outbreak response capacity. It also provides funding to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) clinics to provide prevention, treatment, and care for syndemic infections, which include HIV and other STIs. Additional EHE funding supported external investments with national and community-based organizations to employ innovative HIV prevention solutions such as expanding the distribution of rapid HIV self-test kits; expanding linkage to PrEP in non-traditional health care venues, such as SSPs; implementation of status neutral service delivery models that reach people in the places they prefer to seek care; and capacity building and technical assistance support for EHE jurisdictions. EHE resources also helped provide essential support to rapidly detect, evaluate, and respond to HIV clusters and outbreaks in EHE jurisdictions.
HRSA’s HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB) awarded nearly $115 million to 60 recipients to link people with HIV to essential care, support, and treatment, and provide workforce training and technical assistance in EHE priority jurisdictions. The awards included nearly $103 million to 39 metropolitan areas and eight states (Mississippi, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Ohio) to implement strategies and interventions to provide core medical and support services to reduce new HIV infections in the United States. HRSA also awarded $4 million to provide workforce capacity development and technical assistance to 11 Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program AIDS Education and Training Centers Programs across the country. In addition, HRSA awarded $8 million to two non-profit organizations to support grantees with technical assistance and health care and social systems coordination. Read more about these awards. View a list of all the FY 2022 HRSA HAB EHE award recipients.
HRSA’s Bureau of Primary Health Care awarded more than $20 million in first-year funding to 64 health centers in EHE jurisdictions to support expanding access to HIV testing, treatment, and PrEP services. These awards further expand the number of health centers focusing on HIV testing and prevention services in the EHE jurisdictions. Read more about these awards. View a list of all the FY22 HRSA EHE health center award recipients. This investment adds to the $102.25 million in Primary Care HIV Prevention continuation funding also provided in FY 2022 to health centers with awards initiated in FY 2020 and FY 2021.
IHS awarded $1.2 million in three-year cooperative agreements to seven tribes, tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations to support work toward eliminating the syndemic of HIV, hepatitis C, and STIs in Indian Country. Read more about those awards. In addition, the IHS Office of Clinical and Preventive Services, Division of Clinical and Community Services, hired two full-time public health advisors for the IHS National HIV/HCV/STI Program, bringing the program staff to three.
NIH made 66 awards totaling $26 million for EHE-focused research projects to institutions participating in the NIH-funded Centers for AIDS Research (CFAR) and the NIMH AIDS Research Centers (ARC) programs. The funding supports research projects in 33 of the EHE priority jurisdictions to strengthen research-community collaborations and enhance the implementation science knowledge base needed to end the HIV epidemic. All projects involve partnerships between CFAR/ARC investigators and local health officials and community groups in one or more EHE jurisdictions. View information about these and prior NIH EHE awards.

Fiscal Year 2021 HHS Budget Resources for the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative

In December 2020, Congress passed and the President signed the fiscal year 2021 (FY21) federal budget, which included $404.5 million for implementation of the EHE initiative:

$175 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to reduce new HIV infections.
$208.5 million for the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), allocated as $105 million to deliver HIV care through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP); $102 million to provide HIV testing, linkage to care, and prescription of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and associated medical costs through the Health Centers program; and $1.5 million for rural HIV technical assistance through Bureau of Primary Health Care-funded Primary Care Associations.
$5 million to the Indian Health Service (IHS) for an initiative to treat or reduce the transmission of HIV and HCV.
$16 million for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for evaluation activities to identify effective interventions to treat and prevent HIV.

With those resources, the following FY21 funding awards were made:

HRSA awarded nearly $99 million to 61 RWHAP recipients to link people with HIV to essential HIV care and treatment and support services, as well as to provide workforce training and technical assistance. This included more than $87 million to 39 metropolitan areas and eight states, which are Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Parts A and B jurisdictions, to enable recipients to implement strategies, interventions, approaches, and core medical and support services to reduce new HIV infections in the U.S. HRSA also awarded $3 million to 12 RWHAP Part F AIDS Education and Training Centers Program recipients to provide workforce capacity development and technical assistance to the identified jurisdictions. In addition, HRSA awarded $8 million to two organizations to continue providing technical assistance and systems coordination services to the 47 RWHAP A and B jurisdictions. The awards were made in March 2021. View a list of the fiscal year 2021 Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Ending the HIV Epidemic award recipients.
HRSA awarded over $48 million to 271 health centers across 26 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia to expand HIV prevention and treatment, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) related services, outreach, and care coordination. These awards build upon FY2020 HRSA Health Center Program EHE Primary Care HIV Prevention (PCHP) awards by funding additional health centers in the EHE priority jurisdictions. The FY21 awards included nearly $38 million in funding to 108 HRSA-supported health centers not funded in FY 2020, and over $10 million in additional resources to expand the efforts of the 163 HRSA-supported health centers who received FY 2020 PCHP funding. Awarded health centers are using the funding to conduct outreach and HIV testing, expand their workforce to increase access to and use of PrEP, and connect individuals who test positive for HIV to treatment. Health centers receiving these funds are encouraged to partner more closely with community organizations such as RWHAP-funded organizations and health departments to facilitate referrals to the health center for HIV testing and prevention services. Read more about these awards. See a list of the FY 2021 PCHP award recipients.
The National Institutes of Health awarded approximately $16 million to support implementation science research to advance the goals of the EHE initiative. Approximately $15.2 million of the funds were issued to NIH’s 17 Centers for AIDS Research (CFARs) and to the National Institute of Mental Health’s five AIDS Research Centers (ARCs) for 36 new one-year awards. The projects are a collaborative effort of CFAR/ARC investigators, local implementing partners, and community groups in the EHE priority jurisdictions and will investigate how to best deliver evidence-based interventions and services for populations that face a disproportionate risk of HIV, including Black and Latinx populations. Fifteen awards were made to aid in the development of research projects to address needs identified by EHE teams working in local communities. The teams will leverage existing, effective tools to diagnose, prevent and treat HIV in EHE’s priority communities. An additional 21 awards were made to support projects that address social and structural determinants of HIV using intersectional framework. Intersectionality provides a lens to examine how multiple disadvantages come together to create systematic differences in HIV testing, prevention, treatment, and care, specifically in communities substantially impacted by HIV. The remaining $800,000 was awarded to support the final year of two-year awards made in 2020. Read more about these awards. View a list of the recipients.
CDC awarded $117 million to state and local health departments in the 57 EHE jurisdictions to continue advancing innovation and health equity in the federal initiative to end HIV. The awards build on initial investments made in CDC’s FY20 Integrated HIV Programs for Health Departments to Support Ending the HIV Epidemic in the United States cooperative agreements (see below) and will be used to reduce health disparities related to the four EHE strategies: Prevent, Diagnose, Treat and Respond. The second year of funding will help rebuild and expand HIV prevention and treatment efforts as the U.S. recovers from COVID-19. The awards included $11 million for 19 communities to scale up quality HIV prevention services in sexually transmitted disease clinics. Read more about these awards.

Fiscal Year 2020 Budget Allocated Additional Resources for Ending the HIV Epidemic

In December 2019, Congress passed, and the President signed into law, a $1.4 trillion spending package for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020. The legislation appropriated $267 million for EHE activities, including:

$140 million in new funding for the CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention to expand the use of PrEP, develop approaches to better detect and respond to clusters of HIV cases, and invest in core HIV prevention programs at State and local health departments to provide the foundational infrastructure for the initiative.
$70 million in additional funding for HRSA’s RWHAP to expand access to HIV treatment and antiretroviral therapy for those newly diagnosed with HIV.
$50 million in continued funding for HRSA's Bureau of Primary Health Care to support outreach, testing, care coordination, and HIV prevention services, including the use of PrEP through community health centers.
$1 million for HRSA to support technical assistance in rural states as part of the EHE.
$6 million for NIH for targeted HIV research that includes continuing and expanding EHE-focused implementation research and disseminating best practices.

These increases are in addition to core CDC and HRSA appropriations for HIV prevention, care, treatment, and research programs that received full funding. NIH also received an additional $25 million to support its existing HIV/AIDS research portfolio, which is not specific to the initiative, but supports the highest priority areas of scientific research necessary to end HIV and improve health outcomes for persons affected.

However, $25 million requested for the Indian Health Service EHE activities was not appropriated.

To date, the following FY20 funding opportunity announcements and awards have been made:

Integrated HIV Programs for Health Departments to Support Ending the HIV Epidemic in the United States: In July 2020, CDC awarded $109 million to state and local health departments to support the EHE Phase I jurisdictions in implementing the comprehensive Ending the HIV Epidemic plans that each one developed, informed by consultations with diverse stakeholders and community-level input. The funding awards are part of a five-year funding program, which will help state, local, and territorial health departments scale up four strategies that can end the epidemic: diagnosing all people with HIV as early as possible; treating people with HIV rapidly and effectively to reach sustained viral suppression; preventing new HIV transmissions with proven interventions, including PrEP and syringe services programs; and responding quickly to potential outbreaks to get needed prevention and treatment services to people who need them. As part of this effort, CDC also awarded a total of $3 million to seven state and local health departments to scale up quality HIV prevention services in STD clinics. View the table of awards by jurisdiction (PDF, 161 KB). Read more about the funding.
HRSA awarded approximately $63 million to 60 Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program recipients to link people with HIV to essential HIV care and treatment and support services, as well as to provide workforce training and technical assistance: In February 2020, HRSA announced awards that included more than $55 million to 39 metropolitan areas and eight states, which are RWHAP Parts A and B jurisdictions, to enable recipients to implement strategies, interventions, approaches, and core medical and support services to reduce new HIV infections in the U.S. In addition, HRSA awarded approximately $3 million to 11 RWHAP Part F AIDS Education and Training Centers Program recipients to provide workforce capacity development and technical assistance to the identified jurisdictions. HRSA also awarded $5 million to two organizations to provide technical assistance and systems coordination services to the 47 Parts A and B jurisdictions. The funding announcements were issued in summer 2019.
HRSA awarded nearly $54 million to 195 health centers with service delivery sites in geographic locations identified by the EHE initiative: Also in February 2020, HRSA announced this first-of-its-kind program that emphasizes outreach, HIV testing, partnerships, and workforce expansion to increase access to and use of PrEP, as well as linking individuals who test positive for HIV to treatment. HRSA’s Primary Care HIV Prevention (PCHP) funding opportunity was released in the fall of 2019 with applications due from eligible health centers in late December. Supporting both the Diagnose and Prevent pillars of EHE, health centers will use the funding to expand HIV prevention services that decrease the risk of HIV transmission, focusing on supporting access to and use of PrEP, as well expanding HIV testing in primary care settings and linking those who test positive to HIV care and treatment.
NIH awarded $10 million to support implementation science research to advance the goals of EHE. In September 2020, NIH announced that it had awarded approximately $10 million in supplemental funds to 17 of its Centers for AIDS Research (CFARs) and AIDS Research Centers (ARCs), that are collaborating with partners in local communities on research to determine how best to leverage existing, highly effective tools to diagnose, prevent and treat HIV. Read more about this funding and view a list of the awards.

FY19 Resources Supported Preliminary Activities

HHS allocated some FY2019 resources, including $33 million from the Minority HIV/AIDS Fund (MHAF), to activities that supported jurisdictions and other stakeholders in initiating some preliminary EHE activities. This helped galvanize key stakeholders and community members following the initiative’s announcement, resulting in new ideas and collaborations focused on the goal of ending the HIV epidemic. The activities to which these FY2019 resources were allocated include:

Launch of Ready, Set, PrEP: On December 3, 2019, HHS launched Ready, Set, PrEP, a national program that makes medications for PrEP, taken daily to prevent HIV, available at no cost to people without prescription drug insurance coverage. To qualify for the program, participants must test negative for HIV, receive a valid prescription from a healthcare provider, and not have prescription drug coverage. PrEP is a critical component of the Prevent pillar of EHE. FY2019 resources were awarded to support the process of patient verification, enrollment, distribution of the prescriptions, and a consumer and provider awareness campaign.
Pilot Site Activities: HHS allocated MHAF resources to support four “jumpstart sites.” The Assistant Secretary for Health announced in July the allocation of resources to three jurisdictions to jumpstart activities under EHE. The funds—$1.5 million each to Baltimore City, Md.; DeKalb County, Ga.; and East Baton Rouge Parish, La.—are supporting the jurisdictions’ health departments to move swiftly to implement key parts of the initiative, including providing treatment for those living with HIV, increasing HIV testing, and expanding preventative services, including PrEP. Read about East Baton Rouge’s innovative efforts to expand HIV diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. In addition, IHS awarded $1.5 million of MHAF resources to the Cherokee Nation Health Service to launch an HIV pilot project to begin implementing and evaluating some key foundational activities to help accelerate progress toward ending the HIV epidemic in Indian Country.
Rapid Planning Processes in 57 Phase I Jurisdictions: In June, CDC announced a Notice of Funding Opportunity, PS19-1906: Strategic Partnerships and Planning to Support Ending the HIV Epidemic in the United States, to support eligible state and local health departments to conduct a rapid planning process that engages the community, HIV planning bodies, HIV prevention and care providers, and other partners in aligning resources and activities to develop jurisdictional plans to end the HIV epidemic in the 57 jurisdictions prioritized in Phase I of the initiative. Then, in September 2019, HHS announced that $12 million of the Minority HIV/AIDS Fund was awarded to 32 CDC-funded state and local health departments to develop those comprehensive EHE plans that are tailored by and for each of the 57 jurisdictions prioritized in Phase I of the initiative. In addition, CDC awarded $1.5 million to NASTAD to provide technical assistance to the jurisdictions in developing and implementing those plans. Draft plans from each jurisdiction were submitted at the end of December 2019. Feedback on the plans was shared with jurisdictions by the end of March 2020.
Efforts to End HIV in Ryan White Part A Jurisdictions: In June, HRSA awarded approximately $1 million to 10 metropolitan areas that are designated Part A jurisdictions under the RWHAP to support technical assistance that enhances efforts to end the HIV epidemic. Eight of those 10 jurisdictions are Phase I priority jurisdictions. Based on the awarded jurisdictions’ needs, activities under this initiative include community engagement, enhancing core medical and support services, infrastructure support, and information dissemination efforts.
Targeted Implementation Research Projects: In September, NIH awarded approximately $11.3 million to 17 NIH-funded Centers for AIDS Research (CFARs) and six AIDS Research Centers (ARCs) funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to identify and design targeted implementation science research projects that address at least one of the key pillars of the initiative and support local initiative plans. As part of this effort, the CFARs and ARCs will build on existing relationships with local health authorities, community-based groups, and other HHS agencies involved in EHE. A total of 65 awards were made, funding research in 36 of the 48 counties and five of the seven states with a high rural burden, as well as in Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The supplements were funded with NIH resources as well as $1.5 million in MHAF resources. View a list of awardees.
Strengthening Capacity in Tribal Communities: IHS awarded $2.4 million to nine Tribal Epidemiology Centers to support American Indian and Alaska Native communities in reducing new HIV infections and relevant co-morbidities, specifically hepatitis C and sexually transmitted infections. Resources from the FY2019 MHAF supported these awards. The Tribal Epidemiology Centers will participate in regional- and national-level coordination, provide technical assistance and disease surveillance support to communities, and support the development of community plans to end the HIV epidemic throughout Indian Country. Read the announcement about the funding awards and view a list of the recipients.
Deployment of PACE Officers: Teams of U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) commissioned corps officers have been strategically deployed to HHS Regions 4, 6, and 9 to support the implementation of EHE in three HHS regions. The officers are deployed as part of the Prevention through Active Community Engagement (PACE) program of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health. This component of the larger PACE program is funded with resources from the MHAF. The two PACE officers in each region serve as public health educators about the initiative and its strategies, opportunities, and developments. They also engage with community stakeholders at various public forums to raise awareness of effective evidence-based HIV prevention, testing, and care interventions.
Read the announcement.