There's an HIV outbreak in Memphis; public health officials are silent on the numbers

There is an "alarming" increase in the number of new positive HIV tests in Shelby County; that's all the public knows. The extent of the outbreak has not been quantified for the public.

The Shelby County Health Department posted a notice of the increase in cases online on May 13, and highlighted the zip codes where the increases have been detected — 38103, 38105, 38106, 38107, 38108, 38109, 38114, 38118, 38126, and 38127.

Beyond that, Shelby County residents do not have access to the exact data that would contextualize the uptick.

The steward of such health data is the Tennessee Department of Health. Community organizations that provide HIV testing file the results with the state department. The most recent HIV surveillance data published on TDOH's website — data that captures the rates of positive HIV test results — is current through 2021.

Significant lag time between collecting data and publishing data is normal in Tennessee's health infrastructure, just as it is with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But, enough preliminary information has been collected to establish there is a need to alert the public.

TDOH did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Shelby County Health Department declined to comment beyond a statement similar the department's alert for the public.

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Mitigation strategies for the outbreak — testing, prevention, and treatment — are in progress, according to the health department's release. But what, exactly, the plan is for harm reduction is also unclear.

The United Way of Nashville is the administrator of the CDC's "Ending the HIV Epidemic" program for Tennessee. They also manage nonprofit community partners that conduct HIV testing and harm reduction. United Way is in charge of organizing a strategic response to the HIV outbreak.

A representative for the United Way declined to comment and instead referred all inquiries to the county health department.

Disruption in HIV services contributed to eventual outbreak, Planned Parenthood says

Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi was able to provide context about events that preceded the HIV outbreak and what a mitigation strategy might look like.

In January 2023, nonprofit organizations were blindsided by the state's decision to cut funding from the CDC that is distributed to community partners for HIV prevention, detection and treatment programs. Moving forward, the state said at the time, Tennessee would forgo any funds from the CDC and replace those dollars with state funding. That bucket of funding, the state said, would not be distributed to any organization not formally affiliated with a metro health department.

The state's decision to do so occurred mid-grant cycle for many of the affected organizations, leaving nonprofit administrators scrambling to cover the loss of funds. Eventually, in an unheard-of move, the CDC opted to distribute the canceled funding directly to nonprofits that provided HIV testing and harm reduction services.

Over a year later, Ashely Coffield, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, pointed to this upheaval as a significant factor that led up to the current outbreaks.

"It caused tremendous chaos when the (Gov. Bill) Lee administration took matters into its own hands, instead of [following] CDC priorities," Coffield said.

The fracas caused a disruption in services for many providers, and valuable labor and funds were spent figuring out a workaround. Community outreach, education, condom distributions, and other preventative measures managed by nonprofits took a hit.

Coupled with the ramifications of Tennessee's Gateway Law, a law that forbids any mention of sexual activity that could be considered a "gateway" to sexual intercourse and instead mandates sex education focus on abstinence, the current HIV outbreak is of little surprise, Coffield said.

For now, as community organizations strategize on immediate measures to reduce the chances of the outbreak worsening, Planned Parenthood, along with other nonprofits, is focusing on the same prevention measures that took a hit over the last year.

Testing for HIV is free and readily available at organizations across Memphis, and the county health department has extended its testing hours. A list of those facilities is available on the health department's website.

Micaela Watts is a reporter with The Commercial Appeal and can be reached at micaela.watts@commercialappeal.com.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: How large is the Memphis HIV outbreak? Public health officials aren't saying