On World AIDS Day, Kaiser-Permanente Shares Successes and Challenges

Kaiser Permanente shared on World AIDS Day its accomplishments in fighting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) through its advocacy titled “HIV Challenge.”

The association, which has been conducting research studies and awarding grants to fight HIV, boasted the results of its anti-HIV advocacy through a video that it posted on its website.

The association noted that in the the United States, 56,000 people become infected with HIV every year or more than 150 people every day.

The health care consortium added that roughly half of the nation’s HIV population is black American, and yet black Americans have a 15 percent greater chance of dying from HIV than white Americans.

Kaiser said because of the association’s comprehensive care support for HIV+ patients, it was able to achieve “excellent results,” including being able to diagnosed 74 percent of its HIV patients early, compared to the 50 percent early diagnosis rate in the national level.

“Nationally, only 19 percent of all HIV+ patients have undetectable virus in their blood, at Kaiser Permanente, that’s 69 percent,” Kaiser said in the video. “Even better–95 percent of our patients seen regularly have undetectable virus.”

Kaiser also boasted of having only 1 percent HIV mortality rate, compared to the 3.4 percent death rate in the whole country for HIV patients.

The association said it has achieved its accomplishments through its “comprehensive approach to HIV care,” which includes multidisciplinary care teams, screening and treatment practice resources, quality measures, provider and patient education.

Kaiser Permanente is one of America’s leading health care providers. It was founded in 1945 and currently serves more than 3.6 million members in Southern California. For more information, visit www.kaiserpermanente.org.