The University of Chicago Medicine received a $4.5 million federal public health grant to expand HIV testing in the city's South and West sides.
The University of Chicago Medicine received a $4.5 million federal public health grant to expand HIV testing in the city's South and West sides.
The grant will allow UChicago Medicine's Expanded HIV Testing and Linkage to Care program to offer its services at three new organizations: UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, Ill.; Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill.; and Howard Brown Health Center, an LGBTQ organization with various Chicago locations.
The program, which now involves 16 institutions, plans to administer more than 150,000 tests each year. Last year, the program performed 104,000 tests.
An estimated 1 out of every 100 Chicago residents live with HIV, according to David Pitrak, MD, chief of infectious diseases and global health at UChicago Medicine who oversees the program.e. Dr. Pitrak said HIV cases are decreasing in every demographic except one — young black men who have sex with both men and women. The physician said he hopes the testing will reach this high-risk demographic to help them get treatment or preventive interventions.
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