Hepatitis

Sens. Cassidy & Van Hollen introduce historic bill to eliminate hepatitis C

We deeply thank Chairman Cassidy and Senator Van Hollen for their bipartisan leadership and dedication to eliminating hepatitis C. It has been unacceptable that people with hepatitis C have had to overcome so many discriminatory barriers instituted by state Medicaid programs and insurers to access hepatitis C curative drugs over the past twelve years since the first drug was approved. Additionally, our government has failed to invest in the public health infrastructure needed to increase awareness, testing, and linkage to care and the curative drugs. This bill, if enacted, will finally provide the necessary resources to ensure that more people are diagnosed and linked to no-cost treatment so that we can eventually eliminate hepatitis C.

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President Trump Must Restore “Ending the HIV Epidemic” funding & other domestic HIV programs

“We hope this is one of those instances of ‘mistakes will be made’ and urge President Trump to include funding in his budget to maintain our nation’s HIV response to keep Americans healthy. During his first term, President Trump realized that although we have the tools to end HIV through innovative treatment and prevention medications, the results remained relatively stagnant and by efficiently investing resources in the communities with the highest number of infections, over time we can end HIV. The initiative, which builds upon the existing CDC prevention and Ryan White HIV/AIDS treatment programs, has demonstrated success with a 21-percent reduction in HIV incidence in those jurisdictions that received enhanced funding compared to a 6-percent drop in those that did not. This resulted in 9,500 fewer infections, which saved $5.1 billion in lifetime medical costs.

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Statement on elimination of HHS Office of Infectious Diseases & HIV Policy & Other HHS staff cuts

Today the Trump administration continued its decimation of our nation’s response not only to HIV, but to hepatitis and STIs. While we wait to learn specifics on how many staff who support CDC’s HIV and hepatitis prevention programs will be eliminated, all staff at the government’s central coordinating office which develops strategic plans, coordinates agency actions, collects and communicates vital data, administers the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative, and oversees the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, have been fired.

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20 HIV & hepatitis organizations urge the U.S. Supreme Court to protect preventive services coverage

“Coverage of no-cost preventive services, including HIV and hepatitis testing, along with PrEP, now rests with the highest court in the land. In our brief we laid out the critical role testing plays in linking people to life-saving medications and, in the case of hepatitis C, curative treatment, along with the importance of people knowing if they have an infectious disease. We describe the growing importance of PrEP in preventing HIV, including long-acting PrEP drugs which are almost 100 percent effective in preventing HIV,” said Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute. “We emphasize that coverage of preventive services by private insurers will help end HIV and hepatitis and losing them would certainly damage the public health of our country and increase medical costs.”

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