MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Layoffs and budget cuts at health agencies like the Centers for Disease Control are trickling down to organizations that provide HIV outreach and care. Reporter Amy Maxmen from our partner KFF Health News traveled to Mississippi to talk with people who are scaling back their work.
AMY MAXMEN: Southern states have the highest burden of HIV in the U.S., accounting for half of new infections. At a community center in Jackson, Mississippi, local nonprofits have gathered for a health fair.
(CROSSTALK)
MAXMEN: It's for people without stable housing who have less access to food, transportation and health care - all things that put people at higher risk of HIV. There's blood pressure checks, flu shots and HIV testing. Free hoagie sandwiches are the biggest draw.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: What's up, man? You got your lunch?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Praise God.
MAXMEN: The event organizers have just learned that much of their federal funding has been cut. They're commiserating about having to scale back their work. My Brother's Keeper runs a mobile clinic that offers HIV tests, but they may have to shut it down. The nonprofit has lost grants worth more than $1 million. Deja Abdul-Haqq is a director at My Brother's Keeper. She says Southerners are known for being polite, but this is not the time for tongue-holding.
DEJA ABDUL-HAQQ: So goes Mississippi, so goes the rest of the United States of America. It eventually comes to you, so don't dismiss it.
MAXMEN: Almost all of the money for HIV prevention in many Southern states comes from the federal government. That makes the region acutely vulnerable. Daniel Edney is the head of the State Health Department.
DANIEL EDNEY: This is Mississippi. This isn't California or New York. We're not flush. So, you know, having the rug pulled out from under us at the federal level's really scary.
MAXMEN: As community groups and health departments pull back on their work to prevent HIV, Dafina Ward says progress could reverse. She's the executive director of the Southern AIDS Coalition.
DAFINA WARD: It will have far-reaching consequences. We're seeing this about-face of what it means to truly work towards ending HIV.
MAXMEN: The cuts run counter to President Trump's first term, when he launched an ambitious program to end HIV in the U.S. But at the start of his second term, he blocked government funding for programs on diversity, equity and inclusion. He's called them discriminatory and wasteful. But Ward says equity is actually the most efficient way to design HIV outreach.
WARD: HIV transmission doesn't happen in a bubble. The data tells us that the communities that are most impacted by HIV are communities that have been systemically marginalized in a number of ways.
MAXMEN: One such disparity is new diagnoses of HIV. The rate is roughly eight times higher among black people as white people, according to the CDC. Steeper federal cuts could come soon. In a leaked budget draft, the Trump administration recommends eliminating all HIV prevention at the CDC.
I'm Amy Maxmen in Jackson, Mississippi.
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