Tampa – The Centers for Disease Control has awarded Metro Wellness and Community Centers $1.75 million in grant money to be used for HIV prevention.
The grant is allocated over 5 years, $350,000 annually.
Chris Rudisill, Metro’s Director of LGBT Community Center Services, says it’s new funding is part of a $216 million project to reduce the rates of HIV infection in the hardest-hit areas of the United States.
“Metro has received CDC funds before but not directly,” he said in an email to Watermark. “Typically, most of these funds are directed through the Florida Department of Health, which directly receives funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
Rudisill says Metro will use the funds to add services including couples counseling, increased treatment adherence education and ensuring access to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for people at high risk of infection.
“PrEP is a powerful HIV prevention tool that when taken consistently, has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV infection in people who are at high risk by up to 92 percent,” he says.
Lorraine Langlois, Metro’s CEO, says the epidemic in the Tampa Bay area is “alarming,” especially for people younger than 29 years old.
“Through Metro’s HIV testing along in the month of June there were 10 new positive persons identified,” Langlois said in an email to Watermark.
