HIV, STD Screening Down in New York As Funding Cut for Clinics

the Infectious Disease Advisor take:

New York health officials have "significantly reduced vital services for the screening, treatment, and control of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV testing, according to several AIDS advocate groups, who gathered this week on 13th Street in Manhattan to call attention to the issue. 

The cuts resulted in a total of over 400,000 HIV tests being eliminated between 2010 and 2014, possibly resulting in the missed or delayed diagnosis of thousands of HIV-positive New Yorkers, according to press materials from ACT UPNew York and Treatment Action Group (TAG).

The city’s cuts to STD services also resulted in 40,000 fewer patients being seen at the city’s nine STD clinics each year, according to the materials. At the same time, the City’s gonorrhea and syphilis epidemics have been spreading out of control—syphilis diagnoses in men increased by a third from 2010 to 2014 and gonorrhea cases in men increased by more than 40%.

Further exacerbating the crisis, the advocates noted, is the fact that in March of this year, the Health Department shut down the Chelsea Clinic, which they said is one of the busiest public STD clinics in the city.

Despite activists’ success in securing a commitment for additional funding from the City Council, the Health Department has refused to build a temporary clinic facility onsite. Since the closure of the Chelsea clinic, the number of visits to city STD clinics has decreased by 18%, according to the press materials.

According to the Buzzfeed article below, city officials noted there are many reasons for the drop in HIV testing, including a $30 million reduction in funds for the Disease Control Division of DOHMH.