New CDC Data Shows HIV Diagnoses Increased in 2023
On April 29, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its annual HIV Surveillance Report, which updates trends in new diagnoses, deaths, and epidemiology for the previous year. One alarming finding: in 2023, 39,201 people aged 13 years and older were newly diagnosed with HIV. That’s a rise from the 38,043 cases reported in 2022—an increase that reverses years of slow but steady progress in controlling the epidemic.
But an even more concerning revelation was hidden in plain sight on the CDC’s website: CDC’s surveillance systems are already suffering from recent budget cuts and staff reductions.
CDC Halts PrEP Coverage Reporting Due to Staff Cuts
In a striking admission, CDC wrote:
“In 2024, CDC paused pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) coverage reporting for one year to update overall PrEP coverage estimates using newly available data sets and determine the best way to present PrEP coverage. However, CDC is unable to resume PrEP coverage reporting at this time, due to a reduction in force affecting the Division of HIV Prevention (DHP). As part of this staffing reduction, the DHP branches that produced HIV incidence estimates and provided the statistical expertise needed to assess PrEP coverage were eliminated.”
CDC added that it is “currently evaluating plans and capacity to resume this work.”
This is more than just a bureaucratic issue. The inability to measure who is receiving PrEP—one of the most powerful biomedical tools we have to prevent HIV—is a critical failure. It means the U.S. can no longer track one of the most important indicators of HIV prevention success or failure.
HIV Surveillance Is a Public Health Lifeline
The suspension of PrEP coverage reporting, combined with the elimination of key analytic branches at the Division of HIV Prevention, should serve as a wake-up call. Surveillance is the foundation of public health: it tells us who is affected, where they are, and what interventions are needed.
Without timely and accurate data on HIV incidence and PrEP uptake, public health officials are flying blind. They can’t assess which communities are falling behind, where prevention efforts are working, or how to allocate resources efficiently. For HIV—a virus that can spread asymptomatically for years—this lack of visibility is especially dangerous.
Why Surveillance Funding Must Be Restored
Investing in HIV surveillance is not a luxury—it is a necessity. Every data point represents a person who may or may not be receiving life-saving treatment or prevention. Robust surveillance systems are the only way to target interventions to promote health and reduce infections being transmitted to others.
When surveillance systems are weakened, the virus spreads undetected, and the consequences ripple outward: more infections, more deaths, higher healthcare costs, and avoidable suffering. A country that claims to want to end the HIV epidemic cannot afford to dismantle the very tools that make that goal achievable.