‘Disappointing and insulting’: Chicago health providers fight to save HIV programs amid proposed CDC cuts

CHICAGO (WGN) — In the heart of Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, the work to shore up healthcare carries on at Howard Brown Health.

“We are a primary health provider that has historically served the LGBTQ+ community,” Dr. Travis Gayles, CEO of Howard Brown Health, said.

Proposed cuts to the CDC, to the tune of $793 million, will cut directly into HIV prevention and treatment.

Education, medication and other areas have reduced new HIV cases in the United States by about 20% in the last 15 years.

Illinois’ “Getting to Zero” initiative looks to bring new cases down even more. Each case prevented, officials say, saves $250,000.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure… understanding that if we’re going to end the HIV epidemic that the best way is through prevention,” Timothy Jackson of AIDS Foundation Chicago said.

Aids Foundation Chicago is in the direct line of fire of the cuts. More than 80% of its budget relies on federal funding for several initiatives. Nearly 40% comes from the CDC itself.

“Some of the estimates show that with the cuts that have been made to the CDC and other entities, you’re looking at potentially 200,000 new cases over the next several years,” Dr. Gayles said. “We don’t have to be in that space. We don’t have to because we have a playbook and toolkit, we know that works.”

It was just six years ago that the first Trump administration made a commitment to HIV prevention funding.

“It has been overly successful in making sure we bring down new transmissions of HIV, and the president’s budget, they zero it out. That doesn’t make sense,” Jackson said. “These cuts are going to impact people living with and vulnerable to HIV in all 102 counties in Illinois.”

For now, it’s a waiting game to see if the proposal in Washington, D.C. becomes reality in Illinois and beyond.

“And the fact that we have all these tools available, that again, data shows have worked and we’re being hamstrung as a medical community and clinical community for being able to offer that to our patients, it’s disappointing and it’s insulting,” Dr. Gayles said.