HIV preventative care in South Florida is in jeopardy after millions of dollars in federal funding were cut, according to a pharmaceutical and research expert in the virus at Nova Southeastern University.
Miami-Dade County represents the highest rate of new HIV diagnoses in the United States. While Florida overall ranks third with the most newly reported cases.
"These cuts have real time implications for us here, not in abstract numbers, but real human lives, and the reversal of some of our most hard won progress in the fight against HIV," said Elizabeth Sherman, an HIV clinical pharmacy specialist and an associate professor at Davie-based university.
Multiple grants for prevention efforts were shuttered in June.
"It's rather inefficient to wipe out our nation's established successful programs to prevent infectious diseases like HIV," Sherman said.
The Trump administration has canceled more than 230 HIV-related research grants through the National Institutes of Health, totaling nearly $2.5 billion in unspent awards, according to KFF. The cuts hit high-risk areas like South Florida especially hard, where clinics lost federal support for HIV testing, outreach and research.
Many clinics across Florida have already paused their free HIV testing programs.
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