Every five years, Ryan White Care (RWC) requires its programs to prepare new plans to adjust to the changing epidemic. Biomedical advances, such as PrEP and Treatment as Prevention®, have changed how people understand HIV. It has become difficult to separate HIV Prevention from Treatment. Florida’s RWC programs have submitted their new five-year plans. This article summarizes Miami-Dade County’s five-year HIV plan for 2017-2021.
The epidemic in Miami-Dade
Only 13.2 percent of Florida’s population lives in Miami-Dade County. Yet Miami-Dade has 23.7 percent of all people living with HIV (PLWH) in Florida. Miami-Dade exceeds all other counties in the number of its annual newly diagnosed HIV cases. While 23 percent of Florida identifies as Latino, 67 percent of Miami-Dade does.
Miami-Dade reports data separately for Haitians and Blacks. About 11 percent of PLWH in Miami-Dade in 2015 identified as Haitian, 5 percent male and 6 percent female. Only 17 percent of people in Miami-Dade identify as non-Haitian Black. In contrast, 41 percent of the PLWH in Miami-Dade identify as non-Haitian Black.
Challenges and Goals
Miami-RWC found three major challenges in its Continuum of Care: linkage, retention, and viral suppression. Specific groups of clients varied in linkage, retention in care, and viral suppression. This indicates a need for changes directed towards specific client groups.
Miami-RWC linked 85 percent of its clients to care within 90 days of diagnosis. This exceeded its goal in its previous plan by 5 percentage points. In its 2017-2021 plan, Miami-RWC set a more ambitious goal. Its new goal is to link at least 80 percent of its clients to care within 30 days of diagnosis.