A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
More patients than ever are being successfully treated with medications in a federal HIV/AIDS program. NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin reports from a community center in Washington, D.C.
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE: Someone with HIV who consistently takes antiviral medications won't be cured of the virus, but they can get the amount of virus in their body so low it's undetectable, which means they can't transmit the virus to other people. It also means they can lead long, healthy lives and avoid developing AIDS, the deadly disease that's caused by HIV. Now for patients in the federal Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program...
CAROLE JOHNSON: For the first time ever, we've crossed the threshold of 90% of clients being virally suppressed, meaning that their HIV is not detectable, not transmittable.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: That is Carole Johnson. She runs a federal health agency, the Health Resources and Services Administration. There are about 1 million HIV-positive people in the country. The Ryan White program helps pay for the expensive antiviral treatments for more than half of them. Johnson says the portion of patients who are virally suppressed has improved dramatically in the last few years. She says medical advances are part of that success, like injections you can take every month or more instead of a pill you have to remember to take every day. What's also helped is investment in places like La Casa Community Center, where we're standing. La Clinica del Pueblo caters to Spanish speakers.
JOHNSON: What matters are things like community health workers, people like peer support specialists, people who are living with HIV, who have been through it, and they speak your language, and they know the doc here. And they can all work together to help get you and make sure you get the services and support you need.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: This announcement from the Ryan White program is tied to World AIDS Day, which was December 1. The Biden administration marked the day by laying parts of the AIDS Memorial Quilt on the lawn of the White House for the first time. President Biden spoke in front of a crowd with the quilt behind him and a giant red AIDS ribbon hanging on the White House itself.
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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I mean this from the bottom of my heart. I look around today at all of you - survivors, families, heroes - who have never given up, and I know it's a fight that we're going to win.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: It's unclear what will happen with federal HIV programs in the incoming Trump administration. The Trump-Vance transition team did not respond to NPR's request for comment. An initiative to end the HIV epidemic was launched during the first Trump administration. But health secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has denied that HIV causes AIDS, and Republicans in Congress proposed earlier this year to slash Ryan White program funding. Administrator Johnson told NPR that what happens in the near future matters. Recent gains could easily slip.
Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF TIGERPALM*BAY'S "SOUL WAX") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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