DOUGLAS BROOKS

Updated National HIV/AIDS Strategy

The Los Angeles LGBT Center thanks White House Office of National AIDS Policy and its director, Douglas Brooks.

In response to the National HIV/AIDS Strategy: 2020 released last month by the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Health Policy Director Eric Gutierrez issued the following statement:

“The White House’s National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS): 2020 accurately reflects the current public health realities and builds upon the latest advances in care and treatment to help form a smart and strategic action plan for the next five years. Since the last plan was released in 2010, there have been significant advancements in HIV treatment and prevention. Greater access to HIV testing, clinical care and life-saving drugs through the Affordable Care Act has been a game changer and the updated NHAS: 2020 smartly emphasizes full access to recent breakthroughs like pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). It also rightly focuses on the communities most at-risk, particularly transgender women and gay/bisexual youth and men of color. Here in Los Angeles, 87% of those living with HIV are gay or bisexual men.

“An AIDS-free generation is no longer a dream and the updated National HIV/AIDS Strategy: 2020 is an evidence-based and goal-driven blueprint that can help us realize that dream, but only if the ignorance, stigma and inaction that have helped fuel the epidemic are defeated. The Los Angeles LGBT Center thanks the White House Office of National AIDS Policy and its director, Douglas Brooks, for this updated action plan for America.”