World AIDS Day 2023: NASW-MA supports community-led responses to HIV

December 1 is World AIDS Day, an annual event to remind us of the global struggle to end HIV/AIDS-related stigma, an opportunity to honor those we have lost to the virus, and a rallying cry to continue working toward a day when HIV is no longer a public health threat.

This year marks the 35th anniversary of World AIDS Day. While we have seen significant progress since the advent of World AIDS Day in 1988, much work remains—even in Massachusetts.

The theme of World AIDS Day 2023 is “Let Communities Lead,” an acknowledgment that those most affected by HIV—people living with the virus, their loved ones, those at-risk for infection, and the community-based organizations that serve them—should lead the HIV response in their communities.

NASW-MA supports community-led responses to HIV. As stated in Social Work Speaks, we advocate “leadership in advocacy efforts at the local, state, and federal levels to improve the quality of life of all people living with HIV/AIDS and to protect their civil liberties, including maximum access to confidential testing, diagnosis, and treatment.” Further, we also advocate “programs and policies that are inclusive of the unique needs of youths, immigrant populations, the aging adult population, and long-term survivors of HIV/AIDS.”

Here in Massachusetts, we have seen the benefits of locally-led efforts to control the spread of HIV. Establishing needle exchange programs and condom distribution in schools were oftentimes contentious and controversial issues for law and policy makers. But these and other efforts, including expanded access to health care, HIV/AIDS treatment, and support services for those living with HIV or those at-risk for infection led to dramatic reductions in HIV infections. As documented in a 2017 article in the American Journal of Public Health, from 2000 and 2014 Massachusetts saw a dramatic 47 percent drop in newly diagnosed HIV infections.

While this success is heartening, it’s not enough.  The reality is that there are currently 23,368 people living with HIV in the Commonwealth, according to the most recent data from the MA Department of Public Health, and significant disparities based on race and sexual and gender identity remain in who is affected by HIV. Meanwhile, between 2015 and 2018, 129 people were diagnosed with HIV infection in Lawrence and Lowell. The outbreak was traced to shared use of needles among people who inject drugs. Another cluster of HIV infections among people who inject drugs occurred in Boston in 2019. As noted in the state’s most recent summary of data on HIV infections among people who inject drugs, the 2019 HIV outbreak renewed “concerns about ongoing transmission among PWID statewide.” 

This is why NASW-MA supports passage of “An Act relative to preventing overdose deaths and increasing access to treatment” (H.1981, S.1242) which would give cities and towns the authority to create overdose prevention centers (OPC). People who inject drugs can do so legally in OPCs, where they are under the supervision of health care workers. OPCs prevent overdose deaths and connect people with health care. They also reduce rates of HIV transmission, in some cases by up to 50 percent. 

It is also why NASW-MA is prioritizing passage of the the Healthy Youth Act (S.268-H.544), which would ensure that high-quality, age-appropriate, LGBTQ-inclusive sex and relationship education is taught in our public schools, while also giving schools local control to select curriculum and instructional materials and to determine the age that sex and relationship education begins. Research has linked comprehensive sex ed to lower rates of HIV and pregnancy in teen girls and identified school-based sex ed as an effective strategy for reducing HIV-related risk among adolescents.