(WXXI News & AP) A group of doctors, public health experts and community advocates is launching an ambitious effort to end New York State’s three-decade AIDS epidemic.
The task force was created by Gov. Andrew Cuomo with the intention to reduce new HIV infections to 750 per year by 2020, down from an estimated 3,000 HIV cases expected this year and 14,000 new cases in 1993.
The epidemic will be considered over when the number of new cases diagnosed annually falls below the number of AIDS deaths.
The state hopes to get there by focusing on at-risk groups and expanding access to testing and treatment.
Dr. William Valenti is a member of the new task force. He is a senior vice president with Trillium Health in Rochester, a not for profit organization which provides care for those with HIV and AIDS. He says one goal of this new effort is to prevent HIV and AIDS from spreading.
“What we’re going to do is begin to figure out ways to get people tested, get people into care and keep them in care.“ Valenti, says that the state has “made huge progress, but I think the idea is to really try and get our arms around reducing new infections because that’s really a big priority of this working group to end aids.“
New HIV cases in New York have dropped nearly 40 percent in the last decade.
