President Donald Trump highlighted a plan to eradicate HIV in the U.S. within a decade during his State of the Union address Feb. 5, reports The New York Times.
Four things to know:
1. The Trump administration aims to lower new infections by 75 percent over five years and end the country's HIV epidemic by 2030, according to HHS Secretary Alex Azar.
2. As part of this initiative, the White House will send teams of community health workers to 48 counties where about half of all new HIV infections occur.
"It's not an attempt to go for the whole country," CDC Director Robert Redfield, MD, told NYT. "It's an attempt to go after 48 counties out of over 3,000."
3. Of the 48 counties, those with the highest number of HIV diagnoses in 2016 and 2017 include the following cities: Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Phoenix, New York City and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
4. Health workers will focus on improving prevention, diagnosis and treatment of HIV infections in each county. The campaign will also emphasize use of both antiretroviral drugs to reduce the amount of HIV in infected individuals and pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, to help prevent infections among high-risk populations.