AHF: Elimination of DACA Will Also Discourage At-Risk Youth from Seeking HIV & STD Testing and Treatment Services

After the CDC reports that rates of sexually transmitted diseases are
dramatically increasing, particularly among young people ages 15-24, AHF
warns that White House plans to end the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals (DACA) program will also discourage young people from accessing
critical prevention and testing services as well as treatment programs,
when needed.

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–AIDS
Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS
organization, today warned that an unintended consequence of White House
plans to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obama-era
program that allowed young undocumented immigrants to live, study and
work in the country without fear of deportation, is that it will likely
discourage at-risk youth—both in and outside of the DACA program—from
seeking out and accessing critical HIV and STD prevention and testing
services as well as STD treatment programs, when needed.

The administration’s action to end DACA comes on the heels of a CDC
report that revealed that rates of sexually transmitted diseases are
dramatically increasing across the country—particularly among young
people ages 15-24. At the time of the release of the CDC report in
October 2016, NPR
reported, “Over half of gonorrhea and chlamydia cases are in people
under the age of 25,” and that, “State and local budget cuts to
STD care and prevention programs are major drivers in the surge in STDs,”
according to Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of the National Center for
HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention for the CDC.

“There is no question that STDs are at record rates in many places
across the nation today. At a time when we should be working together to
do everything we can to make HIV and STD prevention, testing and
treatment services easily available, ending DACA will put a chill in the
willingness of young people to seek out and access these services,” added
Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
“Regardless of what Congress ultimately does with DACA, we must continue
to find new and more effective ways to reach vulnerable, at-risk
populations with such crucial public health services.”

About AIDS Healthcare Foundation

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS
organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to more
than 804,000 individuals in 38 countries worldwide in the US, Africa,
Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To
learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org,
find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth
and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare.

Contacts

AHF
WASHINGTON
Tom Myers
General Counsel and Chief
of Public Affairs
+1-323-860-5259 work
tom.myers@aidshealth.org
or
LOS
ANGELES
Ged Kenslea
Senior Director, Communications
+1-323-791-5526
cell
+1-323-308-1833 work
gedk@aidshealth.org