CHICAGO – Today, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) issued five Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for qualified smaller organizations to implement screening and support services to help accelerate efforts to end the HIV epidemic in Cook County. The programs will focus on the intersecting epidemics of Human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV), Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI), Hepatitis B (HBV), Hepatitis C (HCV), and tuberculosis (TB) by providing peer-driven education, assessment, linkage to appropriate medical and social services, and referral to other services not funded by these programs.

The RFPs seek organizations that receive less than $1 million in annual HIV funding to provide community-responsive screening and linkage services for:

· Black gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (RFP 8162)

· Latino gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (RFP 8166)

· Black cisgender heterosexual women (RFP 8158)

· Black transgender women (RFP 8164) and

· Latina transgender women (RFP 8167)

In 2019, Chicago diagnosed 652 new HIV infections, the fewest since 1988. New diagnoses declined between 2015 and 2019 among all genders, age groups, and racial and ethnic groups. The greatest declines were observed among Asian/Pacific Islander Chicagoans (63 percent) and non-Hispanic White Chicagoans (50 percent), while cases among Black Chicagoans declined 24 percent and among Hispanic Chicagoans by 25 percent. In 2019, most new HIV diagnoses (911 or 71 percent) and most new and most prevalent HIV cases (26,654 or 76 percent) in Illinois were among Cook County residents.

“Chicago has made important and meaningful progress in our fight against HIV, but disparities remain in the magnitude of decline among racial and ethnic groups,” said CDPH Commissioner Allison Arwady, M.D. “Three years ago, our HIV services system was reorganized to have a more equitable impact for Black and Latinx Chicagoans. These RFPs demonstrate CDPH’s commitment to fund Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) organizations that receive less than $1 million annually for HIV services and that are representative of the communities they will serve.”

The RFPs are aligned with CDPH’s guiding principles and HIV strategies including:

· Deconstructing racist systems

· Trauma prevention and trauma-informed services

· Cultural responsiveness

· Health equity and · Supporting current science, including Undetectable = Untransmittable, which means people living with HIV who are durably virally suppressed cannot transmit HIV to their sexual partners.

Each RFP will award one selected service provider $125,000 for 4 years to conduct the required services. To access the RFPs, visit the City of Chicago’s Department of Procurement website at iSupplier.