Emerging Infectious Diseases
The Academy identifies the most important issues on the horizon in terms of policy for emerging and infectious diseases and offers recommendations to national level programs to combat the diseases before they become a major public health problem.
The Academy has long called for increased testing for hepatitis C virus (HCV) recognizing that chronic hepatitis C virus infection can last a lifetime and and lead to serious liver problems, including scarring of the liver and hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common liver cancer. Liver disease is now the leading cause of death in Americans with HIV infection, a group already highly susceptible to HCV. The Academy applauded the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announcement that Medicare beneficiaries might be covered for HCV testing. The policy brief Recommendations and reality: Perceived patient, provider, and policy barriers to implementing routine HIV screening and proposed solutions was published in March 2012.
In 2011, the Academy applauded the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on their national public education campaign "Testing Makes Us Stronger" that promotes the benefits and importance of HIV testing. The Academy called for the adoption of the 2006 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendation supporting routine HIV testing in all health care settings and streamlining the administrative operations of widespread testing. National reporters and the CDC were provided the link to the Expert Panel on Emerging and Infectious Disease's policy brief released on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2010, that amplified the public need for routine testing for HIV infection.
Engaging the voice of women in HIV prevention, care, and treatment was published in the January 2016 issue of Nursing Outlook. The policy brief has been widely disseminated in efforts to enhance its reach including during the National Women and Girl's HIV Awareness Day.