Ryan White and National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

Black/African American individuals comprise 45.8% of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program's (RWHAP) 576,076 clients, according to HRSA's RWHAP Annual Client-Level Data Report, 2021 (HRSA, December 2022). Nearly three-fourths (64.0%) were living at or below 100 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.

Read HRSA Commemorates National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (HIV.gov Blog, 2/6/23)

HRSA HIV/AIDS Bureau Fact Sheets, March 2023.

According to the report, in 2021, 87.2% of Black/African American individuals receiving HIV medical care from HRSA's Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP), were virally suppressed. That rate is comparable to but falls slightly below the overall rate for RWHAP clients. As with all RWHAP populations, viral suppression rates lag among African American RWHAP clients who are younger, experience temporary/unstable housing, and lack health insurance. 

Over the time period 2010 through 2021, viral suppression rates of RWHAP clients have steadily increased, overall and across all racial/ethnic populations. The overall improvement was 69.5% to 89.7%. For Blacks/African Americans, the rate increase was comparable, from 63.3% to 87.2%.

For data from 2010-2020, access the RWHAP Compass Dashboard to visualize more RWHAP data, including Outcome’ Measures by Race Ethnicity.

Black/African American HIV Care Interventions

HRSA has funded and number of TA and training projects that focus on Black/African Americans with HIV. Interventions developed by these projects, with demonstrated effectiveness at improving client HIV outcomes, are included in the Best Practices Compilation. See, for example, interventions focused on black gay and bisexual men and women of color, like:

• E-VOLUTION is a two-way text messaging intervention focused onyoung Black men who have sex with men. 
• Increasing Viral Suppression for MSM of Color that helps gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men of color reach viral suppression through intensive case management.
• Project CONNECT and its use of linkage coordinators to effectively engage people in HIV medical care. 
• The text messaging intervention called TXTXT, designed to support young MSM of color to stay engaged in care through personalized, daily, interactive text messages.

More innovations in HIV care can be found in HIV Care Innovations: Replication Resources. Many are catalogued in the Best Practices Compilation, after undergoing extensive review. Examples follow.

Black/African American MSM: E2i

Evidence-Informed Interventions (E2i) has tested evidence-informed effective interventions in RWHAP-funded care settings. E2i: Black MSM E2i has identified, implemented, and evaluated three evidence-informed interventions to improve engagement and retention of Black MSM in HIV care.

Black/African American MSM and Behavioral Health

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Evidence-Informed Behavioral Health Models to Improve HIV Health Outcomes for B…

The Black MSM Initiative has developed a series of eight monographs for engaging Black men who have sex with men (MSM) in HIV medical care, behavioral health care, and support services and improving their health outcomes.

Women of Color/Transgender Women: DEII and IHIP

A range of interventions have been developed by Dissemination of Evidence-Informed Interventions. Tools are ready for replication to reach Black/African American as well as other populations, including: 

• Peer Linkage and Re-engagement of Women of Color with HIV.
• Enhanced Patient Navigation for Women of Color with HIV.

Integrating HIV Innovative Practices (IHIP) interventions identified from various SPNS projects include: 

• Enhancing Access for Women of Color Initiative.
• Transgender Women of Color Initiative.
• Text Me, Girl!: Transgender-Specific Text Messaging to Support Care Engagement intervention manual.

Clinical Quality Improvement

HRSA's Center for Quality Improvement and Innovation (CQII) initiated an Impact Now Collaborative national quality improvement initiative to maximize the national viral suppression rate. Earlier CQII projects include an initiative to mitigate disparities associated with social determinants of health (create+equity Collaborative) and the end+disparities ECHO Collaborative, which wrapped up work in 2020.

Ryan White Conference Presentations: African Americans

Access our Conference Presentations database for sessions from recent Ryan White Conferences, like the session at the 2022 National Ryan White Conference on HIV Care & Treatment, Positive Love: Improving Health Outcomes of Young, Black MSM with HIV in the Deep South and No Progress without Us: PrEP and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.