Thanks to 40 years of dedicated research, public education, and medical breakthroughs, HIV in the United States has become largely preventable—a manageable condition for people who are connected to care. HIV-related deaths, however, still occur, and new cuts from the Trump administration threaten to undo decades of progress in reducing new HIV diagnoses and access to lifesaving treatment.

The precise impact of last Tuesday’s cuts is unknown, but it appears that five branches of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of HIV Prevention were essentially dismantled. The Division is the key source for collecting and analyzing data on new HIV cases across the country. It also supports critical research on HIV transmission and promotes HIV testing and groundbreaking interventions, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a highly effective medication that protects against HIV transmission, and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), medical treatment taken after a possible exposure to HIV to prevent development of the disease. […]