Interrupting CDC Funding for HIV Testing Would Result in Increase in HIV Infections, Study Finds

An NIH-funded Johns Hopkins Medicine study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases found that HIV infections could increase an average of 10% across U.S. states if CDC funding for testing is interrupted or ended.

The study’s lead author said that “if more people are unaware they have HIV because effective testing isn’t available, it is more likely that they will transmit the virus to someone else.”

The simulation model used in the study examined “HIV infections across 18 states, with populations representing different groups of age, race, and sex. The model estimates how frequently populations are being tested and how many of those tests are being done using CDC funding.” The model estimated 12,751 more infections across those 18 states over the next five years if CDC-funded tests were slowed or eliminated.

The next steps in this research will be to “get a more comprehensive idea of what loss of CDC funding for other prevention activities may look like, and what would be the effect of those cuts on HIV infections in the U.S.”