This article first appeared on ebar.com Feb. 28, 2024 and was one of a two-part series:
Though Latino cisgender men now make up the highest rate of new HIV diagnoses in San Francisco, more funding toward organizations that serve the community may not be forthcoming due to the city’s projected budget deficit.
Indeed, the struggle this year will be maintaining current levels of funding to fight HIV, according to the co-chairs of the HIV/AIDS Provider Network, or HAPN, which advocates with city officials for funding.
As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, San Francisco’s HIV Epidemiology Annual Report for 2022, released December 5, 2023, showed that Latinos were the only group to see an increase in new cases (67 of 157 cases, or 43% of new diagnoses, up from 36% in 2021). Among cis men the rate of diagnoses surpassed all other racial or ethnic groups measured.
“It’s going be a challenging budget year, so our top priority is preventing cuts and keeping everyone’s heads above water,” Laura Thomas, senior director of HIV and harm reduction policy at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and one of the HAPN co-chairs, told the Bay Area Reporter. “I think it is obvious, when you look at the report, that the city needs to be doing more in the Latinx community and that this needs to be a priority in terms of preventing new HIV transmission.”
Read more here.
John Ferrannini 