Running on empty: Can a red HIV outreach van outlast federal cuts?

Federal HIV prevention funding that's supported community outreach groups for decades is being rerouted to state health agencies—and it's happening with almost no warning. The Aliveness Project in Minnesota, which runs a mobile testing van nicknamed Thrivey through the Twin Cities, is one of nearly a hundred nonprofits affected. The cut redirects forty-six million dollars to state health departments, according to The Nineteenth, but community groups say no one else can reach the high-risk populations they serve: people living outside the formal health care system. When those groups stop testing, diagnosis drops—and so does early treatment, which halts transmission. The Aliveness Project has been granted just three months of funding through September; after that, unless something changes, the van and the services disappear. Congress is demanding answers, but the clock is ticking.

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