More than 100,000 New Yorkers are known to be living with HIV/AIDS.
Substance Abuse, HIV and Hepatitis Prevention
- NYC has the highest AIDS case rate in the country with more people with AIDS than in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Miami combined.
- The AIDS case rate is 2.0 times higher and 2.3 times higher in Highbridge-Morrisania and Hunts Point-Mott Haven, respectively, than the case rate citywide.
- African-Americans comprise 44% and Hispanics 32% of New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS.
Federal funding to the Fund for Public Health in New York (FPHNY) enabled the NYC Health Department to launch a program that provides a multitude of preventive services to vulnerable populations, including commercial sex workers and re-entrants from the correctional system, at high-risk of substance abuse, HIV and hepatitis infection. The program, being conducted in partnership with a network of substance abuse, hepatitis and HIV/AIDS outreach and prevention agencies, targets the Crotona-Tremont, Highbridge-Morrisania and Hunts Point-Mott Haven communities in the Bronx because of their disproportionately high rates of HIV and Hepatitis C infection and high rates of substance abuse. These communities also have high rates of language isolation, lower levels of education (52% of adults ages 25 do not have a high school diploma) and lower median income. In addition, approximately 25% of re-entrants from the correctional system are discharged into these areas in the Bronx. Existing post-incarceration discharge planning programs do not adequately provide healthcare services for those infected with HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.
Funding from the federal government is supporting rapid HIV and Hepatitis C testing with pre-test and post-test counseling; Hepatitis A and B vaccinations; education and outreach to community members at risk of becoming injecting drug users (IDUs); and referral to treatments (drug-free and pharmacological services) for current IDUs. Through the combination of these outreach strategies and interventions, the program aims to reduce the number of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis infections and to increase the number of people receiving care.