STRIDE’s new Infectious Disease Program is poised to improve the health of Coloradans.

STRIDE’s Infectious Disease Program offers a variety of services to better meet the needs of the populations served by STRIDE. In part funded by the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program, the clinic emphasizes high quality HIV care and resources. There is a continued need in our community for affordable and accessible HIV/AIDS care options, and STRIDE will help meet this need. In the state of Colorado, there were 428 new HIV diagnoses in 2022 and a total of 14,903 individuals living with HIV the same year. Denver county alone accounted for 115 of those new cases.

As seen with many health concerns, impacts of HIV/AIDS and treatment usage are not distributed equally among different groups of people. While rates of new diagnoses were highest in patient of color , such as Black, Native American, and Hispanic Coloradans, 79% of prep users were White in 2022 (CDPHE HIV dashboard).

Thus, there is likely a disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS in communities of color, something that increased access to high quality and affordable care can help combat.

In addition to HIV/AIDS, STRIDE’s new Infectious Disease Program offers services for diseases such as measles, mumps, whooping cough, and other types of infections. Some of these diseases are even more prevalent as HIV, and are important to provide for the betterment of our community's health.

Comprehensive diagnostic and state-of-the-art treatment options offered for patients with conditions including:

• ​Bone and joint infections

• HIV treatment

• Home I.V. antibiotic management

• Mycobacterial and fungal infections 

• Returning traveler infections 

• Sexually transmitted diseases — including chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis 

• Skin and soft tissue infections

• Tick-borne infections, such as Lyme disease

• Comprehensive services for HIV clients, including:

• HIV PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), a medication that can be taken on a regular basis to reduce the risk of getting infected with HIV.

• On-site pharmacist, care coordinator and behavioral health provider

• Services funded in part by Colorado's Ryan White Program

• Treatment and consultation for contagious diseases such as:

• Measles

• Mumps

• Whooping cough

• Influenza (flu)

References

America Counts Staff. (2021, August 25). Colorado: 2020 Census. Census.gov; US Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/state-by-state/colorado-population-change-between-census-decade.html

CDPHE. (2022). HIV in Colorado: 2022. State.co.us. https://cohealthviz.dphe.state.co.us/t/STIHIVViralHepatitisPublic/views/HIVinColorado/PublicFacing?%3AshowAppBanner=false&%3Adisplay_count=n&%3AshowVizHome=n&%3Aorigin=viz_share_link&%3AisGuestRedirectFromVizportal=y&%3Aembed=y