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Congenital Syphilis Is Preventable, When We Can Treat It
Congenital syphilis has risen for 12 consecutive years — not because we lack a cure, but because the only approved treatment is in shortage, coverage is shrinking in the hardest-hit states, and immigration fear is keeping pregnant people away from the prenatal care where screening happens. The tools exist. The system keeps failing to deliver them.

Travis Roppolo
7 hours ago7 min read


The Quiet Reconstruction of HCV Treatment Restrictions
Formulary cuts, fibrosis staging requirements making a comeback, and the near-disappearance of HCV charitable assistance programs — CANN's Q3 2026 HIV/HCV Co-Infection Watch maps a deteriorating access landscape for people living with HIV/HCV co-infection.

Ranier Simons
Aug 33 min read


HIV/HCV Co-Infection Watch Q3: July 2026
The HIV/HCV Co-Infection Watch is a project of the Community Access National Network (CANN) designed to research, monitor, and report on HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV) co-infection in the United States....

Travis Roppolo
Jul 3040 min read


The Encounters Happened. The Prevention Didn't.
Most people who received an HIV diagnosis had already been sitting in a provider's office in the year before — and left without a test or a PrEP conversation. CDC's SHIELD study maps exactly where the healthcare system had contact and did nothing with it, and the fixes are specific enough to act on now.

Travis Roppolo
Jul 278 min read


The Cure Hepatitis C Act of 2026 Bets on a National Drug Contract. The Design Could Narrow Access.
Congress has introduced the most ambitious federal hepatitis C elimination bill in a generation — $9.8 billion, no cost-sharing, and a delivery investment long overdue. The procurement model at its center could undermine the access it promises.

Travis Roppolo
Jul 208 min read


The Future of Prescription Drug Affordability Boards and Upper Payment Limits Is Cloudy
Prescription Drug Affordability Boards are operating in states across the country, but their primary tool — Upper Payment Limits — threatens pharmacies, Medicaid programs, and the patients they're supposed to help. The evidence is mounting that UPLs are the wrong solution to a real problem.

Ranier Simons
Jul 135 min read


A Referral Is Not a Strategy for Aging With HIV
More than half of people living with HIV in the U.S. are now 50 or older—a public health success that demands more than good referral networks. Building HIV-inclusive aging organizations means developing real capacity before someone ever needs to be sent somewhere else.

David “Jax” Kelly, JD, MPH, MBA
Jul 64 min read


A New Era in the 340B Conversation: What Senator Cassidy's New Reform Bill Means for Patients
A new Senate bill would require 340B hospitals to document where their savings go and, for the first time, mandate direct discounts for low-income patients at the pharmacy counter. Here's what the proposal contains and why the stakes are high for the communities 340B was built to serve.

Kalvin Pugh
Jun 295 min read


A Functional Cure for Hepatitis B Is Within Reach. Whether It Reaches Patients Is Not Yet Decided.
For the first time, a finite course of therapy has produced a functional cure for chronic hepatitis B in large-scale phase 3 trials, but the communities carrying the heaviest burden of this disease are also the least likely to be screened, diagnosed, or insured. Whether this milestone translates into population-level progress is a policy question, not a scientific one.

Travis Roppolo
Jun 225 min read


Pride, Policy, and the Mental Health of Our Communities in 2026
Nearly a year after shutting down the 988 Lifeline's LGBTQ+ youth specialized services, the administration says Press 3 will return by the end of 2026, restored under an executive order that refuses to recognize some of the young people it exists to serve. The research record shows what that costs: harm to mental health, disrupted HIV care engagement, and advocate burnout. This Pride, taking care of ourselves so we can take care of each other is a public health strategy.

Travis Roppolo
Jun 155 min read


Political Veto: How OMB's Grant Rule Puts EHE at Risk
A proposed OMB rule would let political appointees veto or cancel federal research grants, dismantling the peer-review system and targeting the disparate-impact analysis that maps where HIV concentrates and why. For people living with HIV, that research is the foundation of Ending the HIV Epidemic. The comment period closes July 13.

Travis Roppolo
Jun 85 min read


Ebola, TB, and the Cost of Walking Away from Global Health
On April 24, 2026, a nurse in Ituri Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) developed a fever. She died three days later. Her samples were tested locally and returned negative, because...

Travis Roppolo
Jun 17 min read


The Last Clean Snapshot: What the CDC's 2024 HIV Data Tells Us About What Comes Next
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its National HIV Prevention and Care Objectives: 2026 Update on May 18, 2026, presenting the most recent national picture of the U.S. HIV...

Travis Roppolo
May 255 min read


When the Target Is SSRIs, the Risk Is the Six Protected Classes
On May 4, 2026, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. closed a daylong Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Institute summit on mental health and overmedicalization by announcing a federal initiative...

Travis Roppolo
May 186 min read


The Policy Stack: How SAMHSA, the White House, and Louisiana Are Rewriting Drug and Homelessness Response
On April 24, 2026, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) issued a Dear Colleague letter that withdraws federal funding eligibility from fentanyl test strips, sterile...

Travis Roppolo
May 119 min read


When Oversight Fails: Iowa's $22 Million Contract Pharmacy Scandal and the Structural Fragility of ADAP Financing
On March 6, 2026, the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services filed a nine-page complaint in Polk County District Court alleging that NuCara Specialty Pharmacy failed to remit more than $22...

Travis Roppolo
May 47 min read


HIV/HCV Co-Infection Watch Q2: April 2026
The HIV/HCV Co-Infection Watch is a project of the Community Access National Network (CANN) designed to research, monitor, and report on HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV) co-infection in the United States....

Ranier Simons
Apr 3030 min read


The Recipe for Change: From Surviving Appointments to Changing Policy
For a long time, I thought advocacy meant surviving the next appointment. I thought it meant learning how to explain my pain better, how to prepare for another referral visit, how to justify why I...

Chelsea BreeAnn Hardesty
Apr 275 min read


Building Stronger Communities, Together: Reflections from Our Patient Affordability Roundtable
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on April 10, 2026, by Lupus Colorado and is republished here with permission. The Patient Affordability Roundtable discussed in this piece was...

Kristy Kibler
Apr 203 min read


The Story of Us: How Celebrity Voices Have Shaped HIV Advocacy for Four Decades
On April 1, Taylor Swift dropped a surprise music video for her song "Elizabeth Taylor," directing streaming royalties to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF). Two weeks earlier, on March 18,...

Travis Roppolo
Apr 135 min read
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