Hello Dr. Huang!
Goodbye HIV?
L
ast month, Dallas
County welcomed its new Director
of Dallas County Health and Human
Services (HHS), Philip Huang, MD,
MPH (UTSW ’86). We have had
several physician leaders in the past
including Gordon Green and Randy
Farris in the 1980s and 1990s. But,
for more than 20 years Dallas County
has not had a physician, or even
someone with an advanced degree
in public health, as HHS Director,
and it was the most populous
county in the nation without such
leadership. Not long ago when news
broke that Dallas was searching for
a new Director, the Dallas County
Medical Society offered to provide
the Dallas County Commissioner’s
Court (DCCC) information regarding
nationwide standards and desirable
qualities in a new Director. A DCMS
committee led by past president,
John Carlo, MD, and comprised
of past HHS physicians and
epidemiologists, wrote a white
paper which was submitted to
DCCC administrator, Darryl Martin,
and subsequently passed on to the
Commissioners. Long story short,
2 Dallas Medical Journal April 2019
our favorite, Dr. Huang, recently
the Medical Director and Health
Authority of HHS Travis County, was
unanimously selected by the DCCC
as our new Director of HHS.
In his State of the Union Address,
on February 5, 2019, President
Trump announced a plan to end the
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
epidemic in 10 years. This seemed to
be a good and ambitious goal, but I
did not give it much thought until the
following week when I attended a talk
given by the US Assistant Secretary
for Health Admiral Brett Giroir, MD
(UTSW ’86). He was speaking on
the opioid epidemic and emerging
public health priorities. At the end
of his talk he segued into the United
States’ plan for ending the HIV
epidemic. The US HIV initiative will
take advantage of recent scientific
advances in prevention, diagnosis,
treatment, and care with the goals
of reducing the incidence of HIV
infections in the United States by
75% within 5 years and by 90%
within 10 years. What really got my
attention was the recognition that
a key component of success for
this initiative is active partnership
with local health departments and
county medical societies. Of the more
than 3,000 counties in the United
States, fewer than 50 account for
the majority of new HIV infections
annually.1 Naturally, Dallas County is
on this list of hotspot counties with
18,000 people living with HIV and 800
new cases reported in 2017.2 In the
upcoming federal budget, Dr. Giroir
expects additional funding for the
HIV initiative to be directed to these
areas. The strategic initiative includes
4 pillars:
President’s Page
by Kevin W. Klein, MD, DCMS President
UNITED STATES STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
■ Diagnose all individuals with HIV
as early as possible after infection
■ Treat HIV infection rapidly and
effectively to achieve sustained
viral suppression
■ Prevent at-risk individuals from
acquiring HIV, including
pre-exposure prophylaxis
■ Rapidly detect and respond to
new clusters of HIV infection to
reduce transmission