Gilead is committed to using its virology expertise to advance HIV treatment and prevention to help end the epidemic. Since 2010, the company has partnered with Emory University in Atlanta to launch AIDSVu – an online mapping tool that visualizes granular data related to the HIV epidemic in the United States.
The tool was designed to help increase awareness and understanding of the impact of HIV across the U.S., especially in the South.
AIDSVu analyses have revealed that although new HIV diagnoses have been declining throughout the country from 2008 to 2022, this progress has been uneven across regions. For example, the U.S. South saw only a 17% decrease in new HIV diagnoses during this period compared to a 43% decrease in the Northeast.
“The first time we looked at the national map, I saw things about the HIV epidemic that I hadn't understood in decades of working in surveillance,” says Dr. Patrick Sullivan, who previously worked in HIV surveillance programs at the Centers for Disease Control.
Patrick, a professor at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and the Principal Scientist for AIDSVu, recalls how HIV tracking before AIDSVu included producing 100-page reports filled with tables and numbers. He notes that the online mapping platform provides data that’s easier to visualize and understand.
“Data is power,” he says. “Whether you are a mathematical person or a visual person, you can come and look and we can have a common understanding of what the HIV epidemic looks like in our city, in our in our state or in the country.”
AIDSVu partners with 58 cities across the country, representing more than half of all new HIV diagnoses in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, to share ZIP code level HIV data on AIDSVu. Atlanta is one of those cities, and the resources available on the tool have helped local advocates highlight critical local statistics like the fact that the rate of new HIV diagnoses there is nearly double the rate in the South.
In her role as Senior Director of Government Affairs at Gilead, Pema McGuinness works closely with Patrick and sees the impact AIDSVu has had on HIV policy and health advocacy work.
“If an advocate is meeting with one of their elected officials, they have super granular data to show them this is what the HIV epidemic looks like in your jurisdiction,” explains Pema. “These are the issues that are impacting your constituencies, and they can demand change.”
Similarly, Harold Phillips, Deputy Director of Programs for the National Minority AIDS Council, sees how the AIDSVu data can help play a role in healthcare and ending the HIV epidemic.
“It's going to take understanding and it's also going to take us using data so that we can make sure we're not leaving any populations behind in this effort,” he says.