US National HIV/AIDS Strategy From a Public Health Perspective

Knowledge of strategies and outcomes of National Health Programs is a crucial point if a health care provider is to remain relevant and effective. 

Tracy (not real names) is  a 22 years Transgender Male to Female identifying person living with HIV (undetectable). HIV diagnosis was made at 17 years.

Jones Cornelius 55 years (not real names) has an SRO in Chinatown San Francisco. HIV diagnosis was done at 30 years when he started getting unexplained and unresolving illnesses.

John (36 years) and Jane Doe (27 years) are an African-American couple living with HIV diagnosed 5 years back.

"One (1) in eight (8) people with HIV still go undiagnosed. Only  three (3) in ten (10) people with HIV have suppressed the virus in their system, lowering it to an undetectable level," (President Obama, July 30th 2015). 

All four people have five things in common as far as HIV/AIDS goes:

1. They started HIV treatment very early. This ensured that opportunistic infections were avoided.

2. They are active members to their support groups. This means they are beneficiaries of such initiatives that look forward to an HIV free world.

3. They have never missed their doctors' appointments. They are able to have plan with their provider in a mutually friendly way.

4. They feed regularly. Feeding as a source of energy foods, nutritious feeds and necessary elements that body requires.

5. They are committed to activities suppressing viral load. They are taking the highly effective medicines regularly

All this was possible, thanks to a robust and friendly National HIV/AIDS Strategy that emphasizes:

• Early HIV treatment
• Early pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)
• Focus on heavily affected groups including: young gay men, transgender women, African-Americans, Immigrants, young couples.
• increased percent of people with HIV who know their serostatus to at least 90%
• reducing number of new infections by 25%
• increasing the percentage of newly diagnosed people linked to HIV medical care within one month to 85%
• increasing the proportion of HIV-positive people with viral suppression to at least 80%
• reducing the death rate among people with HIV by at least 33%

Knowledge of strategies and outcomes informs one on how to best design messages, interventions and key areas of support. This helps a Public Health Practitioner to remain relevant and effective.