AIDS NYC Knowledge, Care, and Community for All New Yorkers

AIDS NYC

Knowledge, Care, and Community for All New Yorkers

Latest Articles

Beyond the Clinic Walls: The Peer-Led Harm Reduction Networks Quietly Keeping New Yorkers Alive
Prevention & Access

Beyond the Clinic Walls: The Peer-Led Harm Reduction Networks Quietly Keeping New Yorkers Alive

Across New York City's most underserved neighborhoods, small networks of activists and community members are delivering syringe exchanges, drug checking, and wound care to people with HIV and substance use disorders whom official systems have long overlooked. Operating in legal gray zones and on shoestring budgets, these grassroots efforts represent both a public health triumph and an indictment of the institutions that should have acted decades ago.
Two Viruses, One Body: How HIV-Positive New Yorkers Are Confronting the Long COVID Crisis Alone
Living with HIV

Two Viruses, One Body: How HIV-Positive New Yorkers Are Confronting the Long COVID Crisis Alone

For HIV-positive New Yorkers, a COVID-19 infection rarely ends when the fever breaks. Thousands are now managing overlapping conditions that the medical establishment is only beginning to understand, often without adequate clinical guidance or coordinated care.
Employed but Exposed: The Quiet Workplace Reckoning Facing HIV-Positive New Yorkers
Living with HIV

Employed but Exposed: The Quiet Workplace Reckoning Facing HIV-Positive New Yorkers

Federal and state law promise protection for HIV-positive workers, but the distance between legal rights and lived reality remains vast for many New Yorkers. Informal retaliation, forced medical leave, and career stagnation continue to define the professional lives of people navigating disclosure without adequate safeguards. This piece examines the structural failures—and the hard-won strategies—shaping HIV-positive employment in New York City today.
Counting Pills to Pay Rent: The Financial Crisis Quietly Undermining HIV Care in New York City
Living with HIV

Counting Pills to Pay Rent: The Financial Crisis Quietly Undermining HIV Care in New York City

Across New York City, people living with HIV are making impossible calculations—skipping doses to stretch a prescription, or abandoning treatment altogether when assistance programs run dry. This investigation examines the structural failures driving medication unaffordability and maps the resources that remain for New Yorkers caught in the gap.
Falling Through the Cracks: What Happens to New Yorkers the Moment PrEP Stops Working
Prevention & Access

Falling Through the Cracks: What Happens to New Yorkers the Moment PrEP Stops Working

For many New Yorkers, a new HIV diagnosis doesn't just change their health status—it dismantles the entire care infrastructure they relied upon. The systems built around prevention were never designed to catch people on the other side of it, and the consequences of that gap are measurable, painful, and preventable.
Still Here: The Long-Term HIV Survivors Aging in a City That Never Planned for Them
Living with HIV

Still Here: The Long-Term HIV Survivors Aging in a City That Never Planned for Them

They survived a plague that killed their friends, endured decades of treatment, and outlived every prognosis. Now, New York City's long-term HIV survivors are confronting a new crisis: a healthcare system, a housing market, and an aging services infrastructure that was never built with them in mind.
Healing the Whole Person: A Guide to Mental Health Support for HIV-Positive New Yorkers
Living with HIV

Healing the Whole Person: A Guide to Mental Health Support for HIV-Positive New Yorkers

An HIV diagnosis rarely arrives alone. For many New Yorkers, it brings depression, anxiety, grief, and trauma that can be just as difficult to manage as the virus itself. This practical guide maps out the mental health resources available across the five boroughs — from specialized therapy and peer support groups to psychiatric care and crisis services — and offers firsthand perspectives from HIV-positive New Yorkers who have navigated the system, in all its complexity.
A Crisis by Design: Confronting the Structural Forces Fueling HIV Inequity Among Black and Latino New Yorkers
Prevention & Access

A Crisis by Design: Confronting the Structural Forces Fueling HIV Inequity Among Black and Latino New Yorkers

HIV does not discriminate — but the systems meant to prevent and treat it often do. Black and Latino New Yorkers continue to face disproportionately high rates of new HIV diagnoses and HIV-related mortality, not because of individual behavior, but because of deeply embedded structural failures. This investigation examines the data, the lived experiences, and the targeted interventions that public health experts say can actually change the trajectory.
Scrubs Don't Erase Stigma: HIV-Positive Healthcare Workers in NYC Are Still Forced to Choose Between Their Status and Their Careers
Living with HIV

Scrubs Don't Erase Stigma: HIV-Positive Healthcare Workers in NYC Are Still Forced to Choose Between Their Status and Their Careers

Despite robust legal protections and decades of scientific evidence confirming that HIV cannot be transmitted through routine clinical care, many HIV-positive healthcare professionals in New York City continue to conceal their status from employers, colleagues, and institutions. The fear is not irrational — it is rooted in documented patterns of workplace discrimination that persist even within the very field dedicated to healing. This investigation examines what that silence costs both the work
Mpox and HIV: A Practical Guide for New Yorkers Who Cannot Afford to Wait for Clarity
Prevention & Access

Mpox and HIV: A Practical Guide for New Yorkers Who Cannot Afford to Wait for Clarity

For HIV-positive New Yorkers — especially those with lower CD4 counts or unsuppressed viral loads — mpox presents a distinct and serious set of risks that demand specific, actionable information. This guide cuts through the noise to explain what immunocompromised individuals genuinely need to know about transmission, symptoms, vaccination, and treatment, drawing on current medical guidance and the voices of community members who have already navigated this terrain.
Promised but Not Delivered: The Hidden Barriers Keeping New Yorkers Off PrEP
Prevention & Access

Promised but Not Delivered: The Hidden Barriers Keeping New Yorkers Off PrEP

PrEP is one of the most powerful HIV prevention tools ever developed, yet thousands of New Yorkers who could benefit from it never receive a single pill. From insurance denials to pharmacy deserts in the Bronx and Queens, systemic failures are quietly undermining the city's prevention progress. This investigation examines who is falling through the cracks — and what must change.
One Shot, Six Months: How Long-Acting HIV Treatments Are Reshaping Life for New Yorkers
Living with HIV

One Shot, Six Months: How Long-Acting HIV Treatments Are Reshaping Life for New Yorkers

For decades, daily pill regimens have defined HIV treatment — but a new generation of long-acting injectable medications is beginning to change that reality. Cabotegravir and lenacapavir offer dosing schedules measured in months rather than days, with profound implications for adherence, privacy, and quality of life. Here is what New Yorkers living with HIV need to know right now.
From Advocacy to Action: How NYC's LGBTQ+ Centers Are Rewriting the Rules of HIV Prevention
Prevention & Access

From Advocacy to Action: How NYC's LGBTQ+ Centers Are Rewriting the Rules of HIV Prevention

Across New York City, LGBTQ+ community centers are evolving into trusted healthcare destinations where PrEP is not just available — it is welcomed, explained, and destigmatized. By meeting people where they already feel safe, these spaces are quietly transforming how underserved New Yorkers access HIV prevention.
Undetectable and Unstoppable: The Science, the Stories, and the Stakes of U=U for New Yorkers Living with HIV
Living with HIV

Undetectable and Unstoppable: The Science, the Stories, and the Stakes of U=U for New Yorkers Living with HIV

The science is settled, the evidence is overwhelming, and yet misconceptions persist: a person living with HIV who maintains an undetectable viral load cannot sexually transmit the virus. For New Yorkers navigating relationships, disclosure, and self-worth in the shadow of decades-old stigma, understanding U=U is not just a matter of public health — it is a matter of dignity.