The Trump administration has moved to rescind “$600 million in federal health funding in four Democrat-led states – California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota – with potentially far-reaching consequences for infectious-disease prevention.” CIDRAP has the news.=
The cuts would specifically impact prevention efforts for HIV and other STDs. Specific programs supporting prevention and surveillance efforts for HIV are being targeted, according to Anna K. Person, chair of the HIV Medicine Association. Many of the grants under scrutiny “expand access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis.”
Some of the funds, which had already been appropriated for use by public health departments, are “earmarked for programs that support the needs of specific communities, such as HIV prevention among Black women and Latino and African American men who have sex with men. Last fall, the CDC revised its stated priorities, including a shift away from diseases that affect specific populations.”
Minnesota officials, additionally, had not received formal notice about specific funding changes to this point. Person urged the administration to “withdraw the proposed recissions and called on Congress to protect programs vital to disease prevention.”
