New HIV infections increased by more than 20% in New York State from 2020 to 2024, and most of those cases were within marginalized communities.
Experts said the tools to prevent and treat the virus are readily available, but the COVID-19 pandemic played a significant role in exacerbating health care disparities. They said those challenges ultimately resulted in this uptick.
“We've got this gap between who we're reaching with HIV prevention and who actually are in need of the prevention as well,” said Dr. Daniela DiMarco, a provider at UR Medicine’s infectious disease clinic.
Statistics from the state Department of Health's Regional Information on Community HIV Report showed that new HIV diagnoses among Black individuals in Rochester have increased by 35% over the past decade.
DiMarco said cost and accessibility are contributing factors to the uptick in HIV cases.
“We have a lot of challenges making sure that folks of all walks of life can get to health care or bring health care to them,” she said. “So getting tested should be part of routine health care, but sometimesit doesn't happen that way.”
Dr. William Valenti, chief of innovation and staff physician at Trillium Health Center, said the increase was also an effect of the COVID pandemic, which eclipsed other public health missions, including the campaign for HIV treatment and prevention, were paused.
“The message got diluted out by what we needed to do to bring COVID under control, adding another pandemic to an existing pandemic,” Valenti said. “We are seeing the effects of that.”
For this coming year, Valenti said the mission is to keep the virus load down and to stop the spread. He said this will require continued investments in getting people tested and into prevention and treatment programs.
"We have to keep our eye on the ball,” Valenti said. “Decreasing funding now at this critical time it doesn't make for good public health outcomes.”
