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Public health leaders say they are dealing with the crisis as they are searching for solutions after losing millions of federal funds for HIV prevention, testing and treatment.
Los Angeles County has already lost about $30 million in HIV prevention funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Rob Lester, senior director of the Men’s Health Foundation’s Public Program. He also added that his organization lost about $2 million.
“Thirty years later, I’ve never seen this,” Leicester said. “There are times when progress and progress is less, but I’ve never seen them step backwards at this level.”
He said that cuts mainly affect people in the colour, youth, women and people in the LGBTQ+ community. Funding cuts have already led to layoffs, and Leicester said it will also affect his work youth program, access to HIV-preventing medications, and testing and treatment.
“The federal prevention funds we get can provide free testing to uninsured individuals. Without that funds, we don’t have a source of revenue to pay for that test,” Leicester said.
Carlos Vega Matos, chief operating officer of the Men’s Health Foundation, said he will do everything he can to continue providing free or low-cost testing to uninsured individuals. But he said it was difficult.
“We will do our best we can, but we are also business. We need to make sure we have the funds to pay for the services we provide,” Vega-Matos said.
Leaders fear that cuts at the federal level could continue, so they must resort to more donations, urging state leaders to provide more funding. Vega-Matos is worried about what will happen if the funds are not returned.
“There are a lot of HIV and STDs that have not been diagnosed nationwide, but there are LA County in particular,” he said. “HIV prevention, care and treatment are under serious attack.”
“We spent 40 years building public health infrastructure to combat HIV,” Leicester said. “With these cuts we are retreating, we will be living with an illness that will infect more people, more people will die, and more people will live with no need to live together.
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