The Philadelphia Department of Public Health received a grant this month to help develop HIV prevention and care programs for gay and bisexual men and transgender people of color.
The department is one of 17 organizations across the country to receive funding for HIV programs from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The grants totaled more than $185 million.
It’s not clear exactly how much money will come to Philadelphia.
The CDC provided $125 million to distribute over three years to state and local health departments to fund the use of two prevention strategies: pre-exposure prophylaxis, called PrEP, and antiretroviral treatment.
The Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Minority AIDS Initiative Fund provided $60.5 million to distribute over four years for HIV-prevention methods specifically geared toward gay and bisexual men of color. Philadelphia’s funding comes through this initiative, according to the CDC.
“While details of our plans for the funding are not ready as yet, this will be a great opportunity to serve MSM of color at risk for and living with HIV,” Jeff Moran, spokesman for the health department, wrote in an email to PGN.
MSM are men who have sex with men, according to the CDC.
Colman Terrell, director of the AIDS Activities Coordinating Office at the health department, was not immediately available for comment, Moran said.
The CDC said Philadelphia is receiving funding to develop comprehensive models of HIV prevention and care for gay and bisexual men of color. The grant is particularly aimed at helping black and Latino people, considered hard-hit populations by the CDC in terms of HIV infection.
Projects could include coordinating multi-agency demonstration projects or developing collaborative service networks including community-based organizations, clinics, mental-health services, substance-abuse treatment providers and housing and employment-support services, according to a CDC news release.
“Health departments representing communities with severe epidemics among MSM of color were eligible for this funding,” Nikki Mayes, a spokeswoman for the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention at the CDC, wrote in an email to PGN.
She said she couldn’t speak about specific applications, but added, “health departments receiving this funding were able to demonstrate a high level of burden among those populations.”