HIV/AIDS Program Office

The HIV/AIDS Program Office coordinates planning, contracts, and program development and evaluation in support of Florida's Unified Ending the Epidemic Plan and the national Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) initiative.

Our work primarily focuses on Area 6, which covers Hernando, Hillsborough, and Manatee Counties, and we serve as the liaison to the Florida Department of Health Bureau of Communicable Diseases, HIV/AIDS Section. We manage contracts delivering essential services across the four EHE pillars: Diagnose, Treat, Prevent, and Respond.

Our Commitment to Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) in Florida

Mission: To protect, promote, and improve the health of all people in Florida through integrated state, county, and community efforts.

Goal: Additionally, DOH aligns with the EHE initiative aims to reduce new HIV infections by 75% by 2025 and then by 90% by 2030, through the EHE pillars.

This involves ensuring that everyone with HIV is diagnosed early, receives Linkage to Care to achieve viral suppression by making the virus undetectable and therefore untransmittable: U=U, preventing new transmissions through proven strategies like PrEP, and responding effectively to local transmission patterns.

The program primarily focuses on the following services:

• Prevention

• Patient Care 

  • Specialty Care

  • ADAP

  • Pharmacy

• Surveillance

Core Activities Supporting EHE Pillars

• Diagnose: Early Detection and Linkage 

  • Our office supports efforts to make HIV testing routine and accessible. This includes training counselors, evaluating testing sites with our community partners for traditional healthcare and non-traditional settings. We also use innovative methods like mobile testing and HIV home test kits.

• Treat: Access to Care, Retention, and Viral Suppression

  • We work with community partners to ensure people living with HIV (PWH) can access and stay engaged in high-quality care. This involves supporting Florida's Test and Treat protocols for rapid access to medication.

• Prevent: Education and Biomedical Prevention

  • Through contracted providers and community engagement, we support science-based HIV prevention interventions tailored to local needs. Reducing stigma through education and community outreach.

• Respond: Addressing HIV Transmission Networks

  • Our office supports the state and local partners in efforts to identify and respond effectively to HIV transmission networks. This is where the network monitoring care (NMC) response team helps to prioritize resources for communities to make the greatest impact.

Resources

Center for Disease Control - HIV/AIDS 
CDC resource for comprehensive HIV information.

National Prevention Information Network 
Source for CDC HIV prevention educational materials.

West Central Florida Ryan White Care Council 
Planning council for HIV care services in the eight-county West Central Florida region.