2010-07-14 10:46

WASHINGTON - The United States on Tuesday announced a national HIV/AIDS prevention plan, and $30 million of funding for the implementation of the strategy.

Announcing the plan, the White House AIDS policy chief Jeffrey Crowley said the strategy is aimed at reducing the number of new infections, increasing access to care and optimizing health outcomes for people living with HIV, and reducing HIV-related health disparities.

"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 socio-economic circumstance will have unfettered access to high- quality, life-extending care, free from stigma and discrimination, " said Crowley.

Accompanying the strategy, Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius also announced that 30 million of the Affordable Care Act's Prevention Fund will be dedicated to the implementation of the AIDS plan. The funding will support the development of combination prevention interventions. It will also support improved surveillance, expanded and targeted testing, and other activities.

"We can't afford complacency," Sebelius said. "Our strategy calls for aggressive efforts to educate Americans about how dangerous this disease still is and the steps they can take to protect themselves and their loved ones."

In the United States, approximately 56,000 people become infected with HIV each year and more than 1.1 million are living with HIV.