The District of Columbia has released a new update to its plan for eliminating the stigma around HIV and curbing the spread of the epidemic in the city.
Titled “DC Ends HIV,” the new plan aims for a new ceiling of 95 percent of people knowing their HIV status, 95 percent of people diagnosed being on treatment and 95 percent of people on treatment reaching viral suppression by the year 2030.
The metrics in the previous plan were “90/90/90/50” meaning 90 percent of residents with HIV knowing their status, 90 percent of those diagnosed with HIV being on treatment, 90 percent of people with HIV on treatment achieving viral suppression, and a 50 percent reduction in new diagnoses by the year 2020.
There has been a reduction in the annual number of newly diagnosed HIV cases around DC in recent years. However, the rate of decline has varied. Around 250 new HIV cases have been recorded in the District so far this year. In 2019, the number of new diagnoses was 282, which marked a 29 percent decrease from the 399 new cases in 2015.
“Unfortunately, such declines have not been consistent across all populations, contributing to persistent demographic disparities in the risk and burden of HIV within the District,” DC Health said in a statement.
While the white population has seen a decline of 42 percent in the number of newly diagnosed HIV cases over the past five years, while the figure was 24 percent and 37 percent within the Black and Latino communities, respectively, during the same time period.
Overall, a majority of the newly diagnosed HIV cases between 2015 and 2019 was Black men who have sex with men (31 percent), followed by Black women (21 percent), for a combined total of 1,766 residents, according to DC Health.
DC officials say they cannot aim for zero yet “because we do not yet have a cure or vaccine,” but they are hoping to push the figure down to fewer than 130 a year by 2030.
The updated plan to end the HIV epidemic in DC is based on dozens of community conversations.