Trump administration restores funds for HIV prevention following outcry

The Trump medication has lifted a frost connected national funds for HIV prevention and surveillance programs, officials said, pursuing an outcry from HIV prevention organizations, wellness experts and Democrats successful Congress.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health received announcement from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention connected Thursday that it had been awarded astir $20 cardinal for HIV prevention for the 12-month play that began June 1 — an summation of $338,019 from the erstwhile year.

“Let’s beryllium wide — the Trump administration’s determination to frost HIV prevention backing was reckless, amerciable and enactment lives astatine risk,” said Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) successful a statement. “I’m relieved the CDC yet did the close happening — but this ne'er should person happened.”

The CDC didn’t instantly respond to a petition for comment.

Friedman and different advocates for HIV prevention backing sent a missive to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. past month, informing that projected cuts to these programs would reverse years of advancement combating the illness and origin spikes successful caller cases — particularly successful California and among the LGBTQ+ community.

The missive cited estimates from the Foundation for AIDS Research, known arsenic amfAR, suggesting the cuts could pb to 143,000 further HIV infections nationwide and 127,000 further deaths from AIDS-related causes wrong 5 years.

Los Angeles County, which stood to suffer astir $20 cardinal successful yearly national HIV prevention funding, was looking astatine terminating contracts with 39 providers. Experts said the dissolution of that web could effect successful arsenic galore arsenic 650 caller cases per twelvemonth — pushing the full fig of caller infections per twelvemonth successful the region to astir 2,000.

“Public Health is grateful for the enactment and advocacy from the Board of Supervisors, the Los Angeles County Congressional delegation, and each of our assemblage based providers successful pushing CDC to reconstruct this Congressionally approved funding,” a spokeswoman for the county’s wellness section said.

“Looking forward, it is important to enactment that the President’s FY26 fund proposes to destruct this backing entirely, and we impulse our national partners to enactment this captious lifesaving funding,” she said.