Trump's war on HIV: Ohio officials, with new federal dollars, tell CDC director battle plans

Dozens of Ohio’s public health officials met Thursday with the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the Trump administration’s ambitious drive to reduce the rate of new HIV infection in the Buckeye State.

“The message here is: Get tested, get tested, get tested,” said George Elias, a volunteer with the Cincinnati nonprofit Caracole, who sat at the big table with officials talking with Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Dr. Amy Acton, Ohio’s director of health.

Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland are among 57 jurisdictions targeted under a plan the president unveiled in his State of the Union address in January to cut new HIV infection by 75% in five years and by 90% in 10 years. The president proposed spending $291 million to kick off the initiative.

HIV is the virus that leads to AIDS, a fatal disorder of the immune system. Drug therapy can extend the lives of people with HIV and AIDS. CDC workers have also been working in Northern Kentucky to study an increase in HIV cases linked to drug use. 

As Redfield met with the health officials at the Cintas Center at Xavier University in Cincinnati's Evanston neighborhood, the president traveled from Washington to hold a rally at U.S. Bank Arena on The Banks. A Trump appointee, Redfield said he would be heading to Indianapolis for another meeting on the HIV initiative and would not attend the Downtown event.

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When the Cintas Center meeting ended, Redfield approached Elias, 32, and the two men shook hands. Elias told the CDC director that he has been sober 17 months as of Thursday, and Redfield congratulated him.

Pushing up new HIV infections, particularly in the Cincinnati area, has been the epidemic in needle-drug use. Gay and bisexual men of color between 25 and 34 are at highest risk.

Redfield said the prevention initiative will rest on reducing the stigma of getting tested for HIV, providing medication that can prevent those at high risk from getting infected and organizing syringe exchanges. Needle addicts can spread HIV by sharing dirty needles.

Health officials must tackle the problem of communicating with young people, Redfield said, noting he usually only gets a response from his adult children when he texts them.

“We have the tools to bring an end to the AIDS epidemic in our hands today without a vaccine” with pre-exposure medication and syringe exchanges, Redfield said. “Not only can we do this, we have no intention of not succeeding.”