Editor's note: This post was originally posted on The Huffington Post. You find it here.
Three years ago, President Obama announced an historic comprehensive plan to help turn the tide on HIV/AIDS in the United States: the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. The Strategy has given a new sense of direction, and purpose in our fight against HIV and AIDS.
Since the Strategy’s release, scientific developments have advanced our understanding of how to best fight HIV. We now understand that to prevent long-term complications of HIV, treatment is recommended for all adults and adolescents living with HIV in the United States.
This is a significant shift; previous recommendations were to hold treatment until people showed signs of immune decline. Recent research also shows that an important benefit of earlier treatment is that it dramatically reduces the risk of HIV transmission to partners. Furthermore, HIV testing technology is faster, and more accurate than ever before, and HIV drug treatment is less toxic, and easier to administer.
All of this has powerful implications for how we focus our efforts.
And there is a clear need to do so: data released since the Strategy shows that along the HIV continuum of care– which is the progression from diagnosis to receiving optimal treatment — nearly 200,000 persons living with HIV in the United States are undiagnosed, and only 1 in 4 has the virus under control.
Today we are thrilled to announce two new developments specifically focused on addressing many of the factors that lead people to fall out of the continuum of care.
First, President Obama signed an Executive Order creating the HIV Care Continuum Initiative.
The Initiative directs Federal agencies to prioritize addressing the continuum of HIV care, by accelerating efforts and directing existing federal resources to increase HIV testing, services, and treatment, and improve patient access to all three.
Fonte: White House