Ending The HIV Epidemic In The US: A View From The Trenches

In an article posted on June 10, 2019, I described a public health initiative supported by several major Health agencies here in the U.S. to dramatically reduce the number of new HIV cases. These agencies, like the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and others have devised a master plan for combatting the HIV epidemic.

It is referred to as the Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE). They have supported much of the research going on at the grass-roots level that develops practical and sustainable solutions to complex problems related to protecting at-risk communities from HIV and expanding access to critical services for those living with HIV. It is through the intensive collaboration of agencies and programs that we can see changes and transformation.

One such program was recently brought to my attention. The city of Houston is the fourth largest city in the U.S. and one of the most diverse. It is the largest city in the southern region with substantial Latino and African-American populations and as we have seen, the South is the center of a very large HIV epidemic.

The I am life® (IAL) Campaign is an example of a local intervention launched by the Houston Health Department and designed to meet the needs of the most at-risk Houston residents. One of the reasons the epidemic thrives in the