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Newsletter: Policy

Policy Updates: Hill Happenings and Administration Activities

Julio Contreras,
Mike Weir, M.P.H,
Emily McCloskey Schreiber

Hill Happenings

FY2025 Appropriations

Appropriators are working to advance fiscal year 2025 (FY2025) spending proposals following the completion of the FY2024 package on March 23. On April 26, House Appropriations Committee Chair Rep. Cole released additional guidance for programmatic requests, setting a May 1 deadline for submissions. The programmatic funding and language requests submitted by Member offices will be compiled to form the first draft of the FY2025 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS) funding bill. Rep. Cole signaled that he wants to work quickly to close out this year’s spending process, but FY2025 negotiations may be complicated by lingering partisan disagreements and the statutory spending caps put in place by the bipartisan debt limit compromise.

NASTAD will continue to monitor the congressional appropriations process and advocate for the highest possible funding for HIV, hepatitis, and drug user health programs.

Administration Activities

CDC Updates Hepatitis Awareness Month and Testing Day Materials

Each year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) observes Hepatitis Awareness Month in May and National Hepatitis Testing Day on May 19. Both observances serve as a time to raise awareness about hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C virus (HCV) while encouraging testing, vaccination, and timely treatment. This year, CDC will focus on three themes: Reaching key populations and high-impact settings; Protecting young families and pregnant persons; and Accelerating HCV point-of-care testing to expand test-to-cure. CDC updated a social media toolkit and ABCs of Viral Hepatitis webpage in observance of Hepatitis Awareness Month

Resources

HHS Webinars: Hepatitis Awareness Month

SAGE Webinar Series: Older Americans Act

“SAGE is hosting a three-part webinar series to answer questions on the Older Americans Act (OAA) and what programs they fund, who’s eligible, and even how our community is going to be treated when people walk in the door.”

  • May 2, 2024 at 3pm ET: Demystifying the Older Americans Act for People Living with HIV
  • May 9, 2024 at 3pm ET : Demystifying the Older Americans Act for LGBTQ+ People
  • May 16, 2024 at 3pm ET: Empowering Activists to Advance an Older Americans Act for ALL

Job Opportunities

Program Manager 1-B (STD/HIV/HCV Regional Operations Manager) – New Orleans, LA

This position is responsible for providing statewide leadership and management of the Regional Operations Unit in the STD/HIV/Hepatitis Program. He/She is responsible for oversight of Disease Intervention Specialists (DIS) located in nine regions throughout the state who conduct STD/HIV Partner Services. Areas of concentration include supervising staff, assessing investigations and case management, reviewing offered partner services, managing repeat infections, developing collaborative partnerships, overseeing outbreak response and workload assignments, developing workforce, and assisting with grant and report writing. Apply by May 10.

Integrated Care Behavioral Health Clinician – Grand Junction, CO

The Behavioral Health Clinician is responsible for assessing and responding to requests for mental health or substance use/addictions counseling for people living with HIV/AIDS and as well as other underserved individuals. This position helps manage group-counseling services including oversight of volunteer facilitators, scheduling, group admissions, advertising and evaluation.

Program Content and Training Specialist, Supporting Harm Reduction Programs (SHaRP) – University of Washington

This position is part of a cooperative agreement award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide technical assistance about monitoring and evaluation to syringe services programs (SSPs) as part of the National Harm Reduction Technical Assistance Center. One of the primary projects of this award is to provide technical assistance (TA) to SSPs for monitoring and evaluation activities. The University of Washington is working in collaboration with the CDC, SAMHSA, NASTAD, the National Harm Reduction Coalition, and other TA partners to provide a suite of technical assistance support to individual programs. 

Communicable Disease Epidemiologist – Cheyenne, Wyoming

This position will serve as the Communicable Disease AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) Coordinator, Wyoming TB Controller, and Disease Intervention Specialist (DIS) for the Communicable Disease (CD) Treatment Program. Assist in outbreak response to ensure the safety of Wyoming residents; by interviewing cases for exposure information, updating news outlets on the progress of outbreak control, analyzing exposure data utilizing epidemiological and statistical methods.

Open Positions – New York State

The New York State Department of Health, in partnership with Health Research, Inc, has various job openings, including some within the AIDS Institute. Please visit this link to learn about their current opportunities.

News Bulletin

Viral hepatitis is a silent killer. It can’t be eliminated if it isn’t tracked

“Surveillance data are essential to guide cost-effective, equitable strategies for preventing and treating infectious diseases. Yet when it comes to hepatitis C, which is estimated to affect up to 4 million people in the U.S., the country’s current surveillance systems are not adequate for providing even the most basic information about how many people are infected or at risk for infection. According to a recent report by Emory University’s HepVu Project, which I lead, and NASTAD (the National Alliance of State & Territorial AIDS Directors), many public health departments across the country lack the capacity to collect data for measuring state and local burdens of viral hepatitis infections.”

CDC describes first known cases of HIV transmitted via cosmetic injections

“Three women were likely infected with HIV while receiving so-called vampire facials at a New Mexico spa, marking the first known HIV cases transmitted via cosmetic injections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report Thursday.”

Rapid Rise in Syphilis Hits Native Americans Hardest

“Syphilis infections nationwide have climbed rapidly in recent years, reaching a 70-year high in 2022, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)...And while infections have risen across the U.S., no demographic has been hit harder than Native Americans. The CDC data released in January shows that the rate of congenital syphilis among American Indians and Alaska Natives was triple the rate for African Americans and nearly 12 times the rate for white babies in 2022.”

If Abstinence Isn’t the Point of Contingency Management, What Is?

“There aren’t any treatments for stimulant use disorder (SUD) that have strong evidence, but the one that has the most evidence is contingency management (CM)… Everything about CM is designed around abstinence. Some CM programs for other behaviors, like cigarette smoking, use tests that can measure decrease in use. But cocaine and methamphetamine programs all hinge on urine drug screens, which only measure use as “Yes” or “No.” In a paper published April 16 in the journal Addiction, researchers argue that it’s time to modify stimulant CM for harm reduction.”

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