At a glance
This issue covers a new Vital Signs about HIV inequities, ob体育's HIV prevention priorities, reclassification of HCV diagnostics, STD Awareness Week campaign, joining the NCHHSTP workforce, and more.
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From the director
I want to thank you for your support and work in public health during the more than two years we have been navigating the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. We faced many challenges, yet efforts to prevent HIV, viral hepatitis, STD, and TB, and promote school-based health and disease prevention among youth continued. Looking back at 2021, I want to share new guidance documents that are the result of rigorous research, broad collaboration, sound science, and thoughtful writing:
- ob体育's Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) — providing schools, parents and administrators with new information on safely returning to school as well as guidance on promoting vaccination.
- ob体育's Division of HIV Prevention (DHP) — helping physicians prescribe PrEP medications and increase PrEP among all who can benefit.
- ob体育's Division of STD Prevention (DSTDP) — including notable updates from the 2015 guidelines, along with several .
- ob体育's Division of Tuberculosis Elimination (DTBE) – Although not in 2021, is now available. The new guidance contains considerations for clinicians, dosing and administration, precautions and adverse event monitoring, and microbiologic monitoring.
Lastly, these last few months have affected us all with yet another surge of SARS-CoV-2 infections and deaths coincident with the arrival of the Omicron variant during the holidays and into the new year. However, over the past 2 weeks, incidence has decreased considerably, providing some hope for reductions in mortality soon, and continued reductions in incidence and over the next month. Despite the ongoing pandemic, I hope you experienced some rest and joy over the holidays and felt encouraged to step into the new year with vigor and anticipation of a better year. Please enjoy reading the newly refreshed Connections newsletter, encourage your colleagues to , if they haven't already, and share with others.
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Publication highlights
Despite advances in HIV prevention and treatment, gay and bisexual men continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV. The latest Vital Signs report presents inequities by race/ethnicity that exist in HIV prevention, diagnosis, and treatment among gay or bisexual men. Although new HIV infections decreased significantly from 2010 to 2019 among White gay and bisexual men, they did not decrease among Black and Hispanic/Latino gay and bisexual men. Please take time to read this Vital Signs and accompanying materials.
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ob体育's HIV prevention priorities
We recently developed a document to help you better understand within the context of the . The one pager summarizes ob体育's role as the nation's lead HIV prevention agency, along with actions we are taking with our partners to achieve dramatic declines in new HIV infections.
FDA announced reclassification of HCV diagnostics (antibody and nucleic acid tests) from Class III to Class II
On November 19th, 2021 . This is a significant step towards increasing the number of people treated and cured from hepatitis C in the United States. This reclassification will open new opportunities for innovation to improve speedy diagnosis of HCV infection. Learn more in our recent .
From ob体育's National Prevention Information Network (NPIN)
For those new to the NPIN community, it is a source of information and materials for HIV, viral hepatitis, TB, and STDs education and prevention resources. Learn more about the resources available in this community, find out what's in their databases, and see their most popular materials—all in the .
March 2021 Model Performance Evaluation Program (MPEP) report published
The purpose of this report is to present results of for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) drug susceptibility testing survey sent to participants in March 2021.
NCHHSTP careers webpage
Are you interested in joining our team at ob体育? Our Careers webpage includes information on career paths, tips on interviewing, and more about our HIV, viral hepatitis, STDs, TB prevention and adolescent and school health activities. Other highlights include our workplace culture and ways we strengthen our highly qualified and diverse staff.
STD awareness week's new campaign
For , we are releasing a new campaign. intends to help people navigate barriers to their sexual health. Participants start with a to see if they may be at risk for a sexually transmitted infection (STI). They will then receive access to several to help them make prevention decisions before going out or swiping right.
News media updates
Despite overall progress in reducing HIV transmission in the United States, HIV continues to affect some groups more than others due to longstanding and ingrained barriers. In 2019, Black/African American people accounted for 13% of the U.S. population but 40% of people with HIV. In observance of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, NCHHSTP updated the media backgrounder, ""
The following media backgrounders have recently been updated as well:
To access our Center's most recent resources for news media, check out the NCHHSTP newsroom.