The Trump Administration’s Plan to Eradicating HIV/AIDS

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Winta Tekle, Sahuaro News Editor

In the United States today, approximately 1.1 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. With the mark of the epidemic in the 80’s affecting more than 70 million people, the fight against HIV/AIDS isn’t over, and the Trump adminstration is taking a stance in eradicating the virus. Trump had tweeted his support for the day designated to bring awareness to AIDS/HIV. His administration has issues a new nationwide program called Ready, Set, PrEP, which hopes to provide PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) medications at no costs to individuals who qualify. PrEP has been proven to effectively prevent the virus, but in recent years, has been extremely expensive.
This program comes in light of the Trump administration vowing to eradicate by 90% by the year 2030. 
In recent years, roughly 38,000 people are infected  with the virus, annually. The Trump administration estimates that roughly 200,000 people could benefit from free access to PrEP. This is all possible by the Trump administration striking a deal with Gilead Sciences, to donate enough pills to treat low-income patients for up to 11 years.
With an effective plan in place to target the epidemic, Trump has taken it upon himself to provide free medical care to individuals with AIDS/HIV, and hopefully eradicate the virus in the distant future.