DEPARTMENT: Health
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Colleen M. Bridger, MPH, PhD
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT:
A briefing on the status of the Fast Track Cities Initiative
SUMMARY:
The San Antonio Metropolitan Health District (Metro Health) will provide a presentation, briefing the Community Health and Equity Committee on the status of the Fast Track Cities Initiative.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
In the summer of 2016, San Antonio learned that our community had the largest cluster of new HIV infections in Texas. The CDC and DSHS traced rapid and ongoing transmission of one HIV strain, and noted missed chances to diagnose HIV (especially in emergency departments), link people with HIV to care, and optimally treat HIV. This dismaying news comes at a time when the landscape of HIV is shifting rapidly under our feet. In the last five years, we have learned:
• People with HIV enjoy long, healthy lives if they begin treatment promptly. A 20-year-old with HIV that is well controlled after a year of treatment has a life expectancy of 78 years old.
• HIV is preventable with a safe daily pill that is 92% effective. The prevention pill, “PrEP,” is available at low or no cost to most people in San Antonio.
• Undetectable = Untransmittable. When treatment brings HIV to such low levels that a blood test cannot detect it, then the HIV is called “undetectable.” People whose HIV is undetectable for at least 6 months have almost no chance of transmitting the virus to a sex partner.
We must educate our community about these pivotal changes, and make prevention and early treatment accessible and stigma-free for everyone in San Antonio.
Launched in 2014, the Fast Track Cities Initiative is a global partnership between the City of Paris, International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC) and United Nations in collaboration with local, national, regional and international partners and stakeholders. Fast Track Cities aims to leverage existing HIV programs and resources to strengthen citywide responses by reaching 90-90-90 targets:
• 90% of people with HIV are diagnosed (this figure is 86% in San Antonio)
• 90% of people diagnosed with HIV are being treated (72% in San Antonio)
• 90% of people being treated for HIV have undetectable viral loads (85% in San Antonio)
Fast Track Cities in the United States include Atlanta, Baltimore, Denver, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Oakland, Phoenix, Providence, San Francisco and Washington, D.C
On October 11, 2017, Metro Health organized a citywide convening of more than 120 community members around the Fast Track Cities Initiative. At the convening, facilitators used Results Based Accountability and Technology of Participation techniques to help participants brainstorm strategies for each 90-90-90 target and for stigma reduction.
On November 30, 2017, to coincide with World AIDS Day, San Antonio will become the first city in Texas to join the Fast Track Cities Initiative.
Galvanized by the dramatic HIV cluster, our community has come together in an unprecedented collaboration between every local HIV/AIDS service organization, consumers living with HIV, the Bexar County Ryan White Program Administrative Agency, the San Antonio Ryan White Planning Council, the Center for Healthcare Services, Metro Health, UT Health and UTSA. This collaboration is called the End Stigma End HIV Alliance (the Alliance).
Quarterly, the Alliance will host discussions with the partner coalitions about successes, failures and changes to the 90-90-90 strategies and actions. Strategies will be revised or discarded if they are not working. Quarterly meetings will be open to the public, so the whole city can learn together.
ISSUE:
The San Antonio Metropolitan Health District would like the opportunity to brief the Community Health and Equity Committee on the Fast Track Cities initiative ahead of Mayor Nirenberg’s official declaration of San Antonio joining this international effort on November 30, 2017.
ALTERNATIVES:
This item is for briefing purposes only.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact at this time.
RECOMMENDATION:
This item is currently for briefing purposes only.