East Bay Getting to Zero
Organizational Statement of Support
To sign-on, please click here to complete the online form.
East Bay Getting to Zero (EBGTZ) is an initiative drawing from the region’s most experienced and compassionate community organizations, clinics and public agencies along with people living with HIV and community advocates working together to advance health equity and healing for all people impacted by HIV. Our vision is an East Bay with zero HIV stigma, HIV health disparities, or new HIV transmissions. We, the undersigned, support this community-driven initiative by endorsing the vision to get to zero new HIV transmissions in the East Bay.
The East Bay is one of the most culturally diverse regions in the United States. Even with some of the best medical care in the world, we continue to have over 300 new HIV diagnoses per year in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, especially among young African Americans and Latinos. In addition, the East Bay is experiencing a humanitarian crisis with a 40% increase in 2019 in the number of people who are experiencing homelessness in our community alongside a rise in income inequality.
Social determinants of health, including poverty, homelessness, systemic violence, racism, homophobia and transphobia, unemployment and underemployment act as co-factors for HIV and STI transmission. Addressing these social determinants of health is an imperative part of this multi-pronged initiative to get to zero new HIV transmissions.
The overarching strategies for East Bay Getting to Zero include:
- Getting everyone tested: We want to ensure universal HIV screening is offered at all points of health care access and to ensure easy access to repeat HIV testing when needed. By 2023 we aim to reduce the annual number of HIV diagnoses by at least 25%.
- Getting Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) to everyone who wants or needs it: We want to ensure safe, effective and equitable access to PrEPand other HIV prevention tools for everyone who wants or needs them. PrEP is a highly effective pill that prevents an HIV-negative person from getting HIV. By 2023 we aim to increase the number of people using PrEP by at least 100%.
- Getting treatment for everyone living with HIV: We want to ensure friendly, streamlined, rapid access to HIV care services for everyone living with HIV. By 2023 we aim to link at least 90% of newly diagnosed people to care within 30 days and achieve an 80% or higher viral load suppression rate among people living with HIV.
Furthermore, we aim to reduce or eliminate racial and ethnic disparities across each of these strategies and each measurable objective.
Through advocacy, education, capacity building, intentional messaging and social media campaigns, we will advance equitable health policies and systems that support these aims. We use a unique, community-driven Collective Impact approach that ensures the voices from priority populations are an active and central part of EBGTZ’s structure and decision-making processes.
By signing on to this statement of support for EBGTZ, we are lending the public and political endorsement needed to help our community get equitable access to HIV testing, prevention and treatment services so we can finally get to zero.