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A NAT IONA L H I V/A I DS S T R AT EGY 

FOR T H E U N I T E D S TAT E S

Executive Summary

When one of our fellow citizens becomes infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) every 

nine-and-a-half minutes, the epidemic affects all Americans. It has been nearly thirty years since the first 

cases of HIV garnered the world’s attention. Without treatment, the virus slowly debilitates a person’s 

immune system until they succumb to illness. The epidemic has claimed the lives of nearly 600,000 

Americans and affects many more.1 Our Nation is at a crossroads. We have the knowledge and tools 

needed to slow the spread of HIV infection and improve the health of people living with HIV. Despite 

this potential, however, the public’s sense of urgency associated with combating the epidemic appears 

to be declining. In 1995, 44 percent of the general public indicated that HIV/AIDS was the most urgent 

health problem facing the Nation, compared to only 6 percent in March 2009.2 While HIV transmission 

rates have been reduced substantially over time and people with HIV are living longer and more productive lives, approximately 56,000 people become infected each year and more Americans are living 

with HIV than ever before.3,4 Unless we take bold actions, we face a new era of rising infections, greater 

challenges in serving people living with HIV, and higher health care costs.5 

President Obama committed to developing a National HIV/AIDS Strategy with three primary goals: 1) 

reducing the number of people who become infected with HIV, 2) increasing access to care and optimizing health outcomes for people living with HIV, and 3) reducing HIV-related health disparities. To 

accomplish these goals, we must undertake a more coordinated national response to the HIV epidemic. 

The Strategy is intended to be a concise plan that will identify a set of priorities and strategic action 

steps tied to measurable outcomes. Accompanying the Strategy is a Federal Implementation Plan that 

outlines the specific steps to be taken by various Federal agencies to support the high-level priorities 

outlined in the Strategy. This is an ambitious plan that will challenge us to meet all of the goals that we 

set. The job, however, does not fall to the Federal Government alone, nor should it. Success will require 

the commitment of all parts of society, including State, tribal and local governments, businesses, faith 

communities, philanthropy, the scientific and medical communities, educational institutions, people 

living with HIV, and others. The vision for the National HIV/AIDS Strategy is simple:

1. CDC. HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report. 2007; 19: 7. Available at

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/resources/reports/2007report/pdf/2007SurveillanceReport.pdf

2. Kaiser Family Foundation. 2009 Survey of Americans on HIV/AIDS: Summary of Findings on the Domestic Epidemic. 

April 2009.

3. CDC. Estimates of new HIV infections in the United States. August 2008. Available at

http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/upload/7889.pdf

4. CDC. HIV Prevalence Estimates—United States, 2006. MMWR 2008;57(39):1073-76.

5. If the HIV transmission rate remained constant at 5.0 persons infected each year per 100 people living with HIV, 

within a decade, the number of new infections would increase to more than 75,000 per year and the number of people 

living with HIV would grow to more than 1,500,000 (JAIDS, in press).
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The United States will become a place where new HIV infections are rare and when they do occur, 

every person, regardless of age, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or socioeconomic circumstance, will have unfettered access to high quality, life-extending care, free from 

stigma and discrimination.

Reducing New HIV Infections

More must be done to ensure that new prevention methods are identified and that prevention resources 

are more strategically concentrated in specific communities at high risk for HIV infection. Almost half of 

all Americans know someone living with HIV (43 percent in 2009).6 Our national commitment to ending the HIV epidemic, however, cannot be tied only to our own perception of how closely HIV affects 

us personally. Just as we mobilize the country to support cancer prevention and research whether or 

not we believe that we are at high risk of cancer, or just as we support investments in public education 

whether or not we have children, success at fighting HIV calls on all Americans to help us sustain a longterm effort against HIV. While anyone can become infected with HIV, some Americans are at greater 

risk than others. This includes gay and bisexual men of all races and ethnicities, Black men and women, 

Latinos and Latinas, people struggling with addiction, including injection drug users, and people in 

geographic hot spots, including the United States South and Northeast, as well as Puerto Rico and the 

U.S. Virgin Islands. By focusing our efforts in communities where HIV is concentrated, we can have the 

biggest impact in lowering all communities’ collective risk of acquiring HIV. 

We must also move away from thinking that one approach to HIV prevention will work, whether it is 

condoms, pills, or information. Instead, we need to develop, evaluate, and implement effective prevention strategies and combinations of approaches including efforts such as expanded HIV testing (since 

people who know their status are less likely to transmit HIV), education and support to encourage 

people to reduce risky behaviors, the strategic use of medications and biomedical interventions (which 

have allowed us, for example, to nearly eliminate HIV transmission to newborns), the development of 

vaccines and microbicides, and the expansion of evidence-based mental health and substance abuse 

prevention and treatment programs. It is essential that all Americans have access to a shared base 

of factual information about HIV. The Strategy also provides an opportunity for working together to 

advance a public health approach to sexual health that includes HIV prevention as one component. To 

successfully reduce the number of new HIV infections, there must be a concerted effort by the public 

and private sectors, including government at all levels, individuals, and communities, to: 

• Intensify HIV prevention efforts in communities where HIV is most heavily concentrated.

• Expand targeted efforts to prevent HIV infection using a combination of effective, evidencebased approaches. 

• Educate all Americans about the threat of HIV and how to prevent it. 

Increasing Access to Care and Improving Health Outcomes for People 

Living with HIV

As a result of our ongoing investments in research and years of clinical experience, people living with HIV 

can enjoy long and healthy lives. To make this a reality for everyone, it is important to get people with 

HIV into care early after infection to protect their health and reduce their potential of transmitting the 

6. Kaiser Family Foundation. 2009 Survey of Americans on HIV/AIDS: Summary of Findings on the Domestic 

Epidemic. April 2009. Available at http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/upload/7889.pdf
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virus to others. For these reasons, it is important that all people living with HIV are well supported in a 

regular system of care. The Affordable Care Act, which will greatly expand access to insurance coverage 

for people living with HIV, will provide a platform for improvements in health care coverage and quality. 

High risk pools are available immediately. High risk pools will be established in every state to provide 

coverage to uninsured people with chronic conditions. In 2014, Medicaid will be expanded to all lower 

income individuals (below 133% of the Federal poverty level, or about $15,000 for a single individual 

in 2010) under age 65. Uninsured people with incomes up to 400% of the Federal poverty level (about 

$43,000 for a single individual in 2010) will have access to Federal tax credits and the opportunity to 

purchase private insurance coverage through competitive insurance exchanges. New consumer protections will better protect people with private insurance coverage by ending discrimination based on 

health status and pre-existing conditions. Gaps in essential care and services for people living with HIV 

will continue to need to be addressed along with the unique biological, psychological, and social effects 

of living with HIV. Therefore, the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program and other Federal and State HIV-focused 

programs will continue to be necessary after the law is implemented. Additionally, improving health 

outcomes requires continued investments in research to develop safer, cheaper, and more effective 

treatments. Both public and private sector entities must take the following steps to improve service 

delivery for people living with HIV:

• Establish a seamless system to immediately link people to continuous and coordinated quality 

care when they are diagnosed with HIV.

• Take deliberate steps to increase the number and diversity of available providers of clinical care 

and related services for people living with HIV. 

• Support people living with HIV with co-occurring health conditions and those who have challenges meeting their basic needs, such as housing.

Reducing HIV-Related Health Disparities

The stigma associated with HIV remains extremely high and fear of discrimination causes some 

Americans to avoid learning their HIV status, disclosing their status, or accessing medical care.7 Data 

indicate that HIV disproportionately affects the most vulnerable in our society—those Americans who 

have less access to prevention and treatment services and, as a result, often have poorer health outcomes. Further, in some heavily affected communities, HIV may not be viewed as a primary concern, 

such as in communities experiencing problems with crime, unemployment, lack of housing, and other 

pressing issues. Therefore, to successfully address HIV, we need more and better community-level 

approaches that integrate HIV prevention and care with more comprehensive responses to social service 

needs. Key steps for the public and private sector to take to reduce HIV-related health disparities are: 

• Reduce HIV-related mortality in communities at high risk for HIV infection. 

• Adopt community-level approaches to reduce HIV infection in high-risk communities.

• Reduce stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV.

7. Mahajan AP, Sayles JN, Patel VA, et al. Stigma in the HIV/AIDS epidemic: A review of the literature and 

recommendations for the way forward. AIDS 2008;22(Suppl 2):S67-S69.
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Achieving a More Coordinated National Response to the HIV Epidemic in 

the United States

The Nation can succeed at meeting the President’s goals. It will require the Federal Government and 

State, tribal and local governments, however, to do some things differently. Foremost is the need for 

an unprecedented commitment to collaboration, efficiency, and innovation. We also must be prepared 

to adjust course as needed. This Strategy is intended to complement other related efforts across the 

Administration. For example, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has taught us 

valuable lessons about fighting HIV and scaling up efforts around the world that can be applied to the 

domestic epidemic. The President’s National Drug Control Strategy serves as a blueprint for reducing 

drug use and its consequences, and the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness focuses 

efforts to reduce homelessness and increase housing security. The White House Office of National AIDS 

Policy (ONAP) will work collaboratively with the Office of National Drug Control Policy and other White 

House offices, as well as relevant agencies to further the goals of the Strategy. The Strategy is intended to 

promote greater investment in HIV/AIDS, but this is not a budget document. Nonetheless, it will inform 

the Federal budget development process within the context of the fiscal goals that the President has 

articulated. The United States currently provides more than $19 billion in annual funding for domestic 

HIV prevention, care, and research, and there are constraints on the magnitude of any potential new 

investments in the Federal budget. The Strategy should be used to refocus our existing efforts and 

deliver better results to the American people within current funding levels, as well as to highlight the 

need for additional investments. Our national progress will require sustaining broader public commitment to HIV, and this calls for more regular communications to ensure transparency about whether we 

are meeting national goals. Key steps are to:

• Increase the coordination of HIV programs across the Federal government and between federal 

agencies and state, territorial, tribal, and local governments.

• Develop improved mechanisms to monitor and report on progress toward achieving national 

goals.

This Strategy provides a basic framework for moving forward. With government at all levels doing its 

part, a committed private sector, and leadership from people living with HIV and affected communities, 

the United States can dramatically reduce HIV transmission and better support people living with HIV 

and their families.