HIV

The rate of new HIV cases tied to drug use in Tennessee is surging — doubling over the past few years. Experts say that makes safe syringe programs more important than ever.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee made waves in early 2023, when he rejected millions of dollars in federal HIV prevention programming. Since then, the state has been replacing that money. But that new process is already causing damage, according to public health experts, and models show this could mean more infections and more deaths in the long term.

The Tennessee government has agreed to begin scrubbing its sex offender registry of dozens of people who were convicted of prostitution while having HIV, reversing a practice that federal lawsuits have challenged as draconian and discriminatory.

A pair of bills working their way through the Tennessee legislature would eliminate an aggravated prostitution charge for sex workers who test positive for HIV.

The U.S. Department of Justice has ordered Tennessee to stop enforcing a statute that discriminates against those living with HIV.

House Bill 349, which the General Assembly passed earlier this year, modernizes a handful of statutes related to the disease. The bill made the distribution of self-test kits legal and eliminated felony charges for people living with HIV attempting to donate organs or other tissue, something the federal HOPE Act did nearly a decade ago.

Tennessee’s new commissioner of health made his first appearance before a legislative committee Wednesday, though the Republican chairman warned members not to question Dr. Ralph Alvarado about HIV funding. Even

Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill into law Tuesday that repeals criminal penalties for people who transmit HIV to others.

It's been 40 years since the first U.S. AIDS cases were were reported, and some who experienced the early years of the crisis say the effects of denialism then have carried into the COVID-19 pandemic.