PHOENIX — Federal funding cuts are threatening vital public health services in Arizona, including HIV prevention programs, as organizations face stop-work orders and budget freezes.
The Trump administration has cancelled funding for HIV vaccine research, notifying leaders of the $258 million program on Friday, according to the New York Times.
“I lived through the 90s. I remember what that was like, and it feels like we’re trying to head right back into the 90s again,” said Jessyca Leach, CEO of Prisma Community Care.
Prisma Community Care, a non-profit that provides health and wellness treatments, including HIV testing and treatment, is among the organizations concerned about the impact of these cuts.
“What we’re running into right now is HIV is on the rise in a lot of cities and in Maricopa County, and so when you cut funding for vaccines, when you cut funding for research, it puts a halt on everything that’s happening. You have to go back and recreate,” Leach said.
Leach emphasized that multiple approaches are needed to effectively combat HIV.
“It’s very much like saying, ‘Look, we build affordable housing. One unit, we’re done.’ You have to have multiple outlets,” Leach said. “When we stop researching, we know that people die.”
Prisma had its federal funding completely frozen earlier this year, but was able to get it reinstated. However, other organizations haven’t been as fortunate.
Ripple PHX, another non-profit that provides mobile HIV testing and prevention services, received a stop-work order from the Arizona Department of Health Services on Friday for its HIV prevention and surveillance grant.
“It’s not just kind of our funding. It is literally HIV prevention method or prevention funding in Maricopa County in Arizona and in the US. So what does that mean? That means, like, less testing, perhaps for folks, less hours of availability, less staffing,” said Jason Jones, Co-Executive Director of Ripple PHC.
Jones warned about the potential consequences of these funding cuts.
“We are literally going backwards instead of moving forward,” Jones said.
According to the New York Times, the National Institutes of Health is shifting its focus to using currently available approaches to eliminate HIV/AIDS.
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