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Plan To Reduce HIV In U.S. Could Include $25 Million For Indian Country

Jackie Fortier / StateImpact Oklahoma
Dr. Michelle Salvaggio holds one of the medicines she prescribes to her patients with HIV.

Nine Oklahoma health centers that serve Native Americans could get funding to reduce the spread of HIV.

The national Indian Health Service could get $25 million as part of a multi-million dollar initiative proposed by President Trump to end the spread of HIV in the next decade.

The initiative focuses on seven mostly southern states including Oklahoma, where rural HIV rates are among the highest in the nation, but it's unclear how much money would be focused on the Sooner State.

Health officials want to use the money to help prevent the spread of Hepatitis C — a liver infection that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates a quarter of people with HIV also have.

Congress will ultimately decide how much funding the HIV initiative will get. The CDC says nationally, HIV diagnoses among Native Americans have gone up 34 percent in recent years.

Lenora LaVictoire was a KOSU reporter and host from May to August 2019, following a five-month internship with StateImpact Oklahoma.
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