July 22, 2026
Read the PublicationPreventing HIV transmission and ending HIV as a public health threat entails not only identifying and focusing on the populations with the greatest burden of HIV, but also groups that are easily overlooked. Heterosexual women accounted for 17% of new cases in 2024, with a disproportionate burden among Black and Latine women. Heterosexual men also accounted for 8% of total HIV cases, yet they receive very limited HIV messages and services tailored to them. HIV is a sexually transmitted infection (STI), but public health programs often have handled HIV separately and differently than other STIs, even though the behaviors and modes of transmission for HIV and other STIs overlap. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that at any given time, one in five U.S. adults has an STI. This Big Ideas brief offers actionable policy responses that bolster the role of community in defining sexual health, that describe way to revise guidelines and embrace technology, and that call for re-investing in a national network of sexual health clinics to improve the response to HIV and other STIs for heterosexual men and women.
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