10 hours ago
Nonprofit in Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood working to prevent HIV infections
In a quiet corner of Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood, Kareem Mims is doing work that could one day put him out of a job, and he hopes it does.
As a prevention healthcare coordinator at Prevention Point Philadelphia, Mims tests people for HIV, the virus that has taken the lives of over 700,000 people in the United States since the start of the epidemic in 1981.
"HIV is still an easy virus to spread. It's still an easy virus to contract, and it can go unnoticed for years," Mims said. "So, the more people getting tested, especially our at-risk folks, if they are infected with HIV, we can get them in treatment and have them undetectable, which means un-transmittable, within 30 days."
Mims works for Prevention Point, a nonprofit that has been on the front lines of harm reduction for over 30 years.
The organization launched Philadelphia's first legal syringe exchange in 1992, at the height of the AIDS crisis, a time when nearly 50% of new HIV infections in the city were linked to drug use.
Today, thanks to expanded access to testing, treatment, and prevention, Prevention Point said that figure has dropped to just 5.8% as of 2023.
One of the people getting tested is Maryann Parken, a regular at Prevention Point.
"These people are awesome," she said. "I get a lot of services here. I get PrEP. I get everything. So, I come here like every day."
Parken said she tests regularly because her partner had hepatitis C.
"Just in case," she said.
The science around HIV prevention has evolved dramatically. Antiretroviral medications now allow people living with HIV to become undetectable, meaning they cannot transmit the virus to others.
There's also PrEP, a once-daily oral medication that prevents HIV infection, and more recently, long-acting injectable versions.
"When I first started working here four years ago, we only had oral PrEP like Descovy," Mims said. "Now we're doing long-acting injections, which I really recommend to all of our patients, especially our unhoused patients."
"In this population, people lose their pills," he added. "People get their pills stolen."
Despite the progress, Mims said there's still work to do. He hopes treatment continues to advance and that one day, the virus will no longer be a threat.
"I'm currently trying to work myself out of a job," he said. "When we have zero HIV infections, I'll feel satisfied."
