Released last month on World AIDS Day, December 1, the updated National HIV/AIDS Strategy lays out a road map for ending the HIV epidemic in the United States by 2030. The five-year plan spans 2022 to 2025 and builds on previous strategies. Wondering what’s different about this update and how individuals, communities and organizations can use the plan to fight the epidemic? You’re in luck: There’s a webinar for that.
You can watch the webinar, titled “The Updated National HIV/AIDS Strategy: What’s New and What’s Next? A Webinar on How to Use the Strategy,” at the top of this article or on the HIV.gov YouTube page; you can also read more about it on the HIV.gov blog.
If you prefer a brief (five minutes) overview of the new strategy, check out the video below, in which HIV.gov’s David Vaughan interviews Harold Phillips, the director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, which developed and published the strategy.
Phillips appears in the webinar alongside other national HIV leaders (and their numerous presentations of data), including:
- Joe Carlile, senior adviser of budget, policy and programs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD);
- Leo Moore, MD, the medical director for clinical services at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and the webinar’s moderator;
- Edwin L. Walker, the deputy assistant secretary for aging at the Administration for Community Living (ACL) at the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS); and
- Dafina Ward, the executive director of the Southern AIDS Coalition.
Phillips emphasizes early in the webinar that the updated NHAS engages more federal agencies in order to better reach folks affected by HIV and the nonfederal organizations that serve them—for example, via greater collaboration with faith-based groups and local communities and addressing social determinants of health.
The new strategy, according to Phillips, includes an increased focus on substance use disorders; harm reduction approaches that intersect with sexually transmitted infections, viral hepatitis and HIV; federal efforts to help states address unjust HIV crime laws; and a greater emphasis on strategies for people aging with HIV.
Regarding the aging population, Walker presented a slide illustrating why it’s important to highlight this group: 17% of new HIV diagnoses are among people age 50 and older, and older adults are more likely to have late-stage HIV at the time of their diagnosis and may have additional challenges getting into HIV care.
To learn more about the new NHAS, read the POZ feature “What’s New in the Updated HIV/AIDS Strategy?” For a collection of related articles, click the hashtag #National HIV/AIDS Strategy, where you’ll find “2021 Was a Year of HIV Progress; Now Let’s Focus on PrEP and PEP,” “AIDS United’s President and CEO Praises the New National HIV/AIDS Strategy” and much more.
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