CDC National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention Releases New Strategic Plan

		SUMMARY: The National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP) last week announced the availability of a new Strategic Plan for the coming 5 years. The 2010-2015 plan describes the agency's overarching goals and strategies for preventing HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis (hepatitis A, B, and C), sexually transmitted diseases, and tuberculosis.

By Liz Highleyman

Below is the text of a letter from NCHHSTP director Kevin Fenton announcing the plan.

National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention's (NCHHSTP's) Strategic Plan for 2010-2015

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce the publication of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention's (NCHHSTP's) Strategic Plan for 2010-2015. This plan articulates a vision and overarching goals and strategies to guide and enhance NCHHSTP's programs to prevent HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and tuberculosis (TB) infections.

The strategic plan recognizes the dynamic interplay of factors that continue to drive epidemics of HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, STDs and TB at home and abroad. These include a diverse array of infectious agents; heterogeneous disease prevalence; behavioral, social, and structural determinants; and the effectiveness of disease prevention and control interventions. It also acknowledges that these infectious diseases often present concurrently within individuals as co-infections, or within communities as overlapping epidemics (or syndemics) thereby requiring fundamental shifts in how our traditionally siloed prevention services are conceptualized and delivered. Chief among these shifts are our Center's commitment to implementing more holistic and integrated prevention approaches; comprehensively addressing the individual, social, and structural barriers; engaging a more diverse array of sectors and partners; and a deeper, more meaningful engagement of affected communities.

The new strategic plan therefore provides an overarching framework within which our disease-specific prevention strategies will be developed and implemented, and opportunities for collaborating within and outside our agency will be leveraged better. We look forward to new, reinvigorated, and productive partnerships as we implement this plan, fully acknowledging the need for openness and flexibility as we gain additional input, experience, and perspectives.

Thank you for your commitment and service to protecting the public's health.

Sincerely,

Kevin A. Fenton, MD, PhD, FFPH
Director, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The new plan is available online.