O'Neill Institute | March 21, 2025
News reports indicate that the Trump Administration is considering reducing or eliminating our national investment in domestic HIV prevention through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of HIV Prevention. Our current efforts, however, are having an impact. In 2022, there were 6,700 fewer new cases of HIV than in 2017, the first year that President Trump was in office. Averting just that number of cases in one year alone saved the health system $2.8 billion in lifetime HIV treatment costs. A different study found that annual and cumulative health care costs for individuals with HIV were seven times higher than for those who did not have HIV and found that avoiding one new infection can result in saving $850,557 in lifetime treatment costs when total health care treatment costs (including non-HIV health care) are considered. CDC’s approach to High-Impact HIV Prevention is the unifying strategy that coordinates the actions of various levels of government and non-government partners and ensures accountability. President Trump launched the Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) Initiative in 2019 which brought increased funding for HIV prevention and care to enable the CDC and other federal partners to work with heavily impacted jurisdictions to build their capacity to deliver HIV treatment and High-Impact HIV Prevention.
The EHE was a success, but its work is not complete. Therefore, we call on the Trump Administration to recommit to prevention as a central strategy of its Ending the HIV epidemic goal and continue the crucial work of the CDC Division of HIV Prevention working with collaborating agencies across the federal government and with its essential network of state and local partners.