A big decrease in funding could endanger HIV prevention services in Delaware.
Delaware's Division of Public Health plans to cut nearly $2 million from the program due to a lack of federal funding.
Executive Director of Delaware's HIV Consortium, Tyler Berl, said all eight of Delaware's HIV prevention organizations will be affected. Some have already closed down. "All of us are devastated," Berl shared.
He believes budget cuts could also lead to higher costs down the line.
"Every person that is diagnosed with HIV has a lifetime treatment cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars," Berl explained. "Most of the people who are living with HIV are receiving their health insurance through federal and state programs so any amount of dollars that can [go toward] preventing people from becoming HIV positive is going to be saved on the back end."
Data provided by Delaware's Division of Health and Social Services shows that HIV disproportionately effects Africans Americans, the LGBTQ+ community, and injection drug users.
"Any cuts to the HIV prevention sector are going to effect those key populations the most," Berl warned.
CAMP Rehoboth is a community organization that aims to assists LGBTQ+ people in Sussex County which also focuses on HIV prevention and education.
Communications director Matty Brown said it is too soon to tell how the budget cuts will impact their services such as daily HIV testing, condom distribution and outreach. Brown said the organization will do whatever it can with resources made available.
There is always hope for additional funding to come through in the future, although Berl says "any time you make a service cut, particularly cutting off programs that are long standing, they don't just start back up when new funding comes five or six months later."
The Delaware HIV Consortium will have to lay-off at least two employees.