HIV, STD and Viral Hepatitis

Health Equity

HIV, STD, and TB are community issues and can affect anyone. However, data show health inequities in HIV, STD, and TB, meaning that certain groups have higher rates of disease and/or worse outcomes than others. We see health inequities across categories of gender, race and ethnicity, education, income, disability, geographic location, sexual orientation, and gender identity, among others. Health inequities can be traced back to the systematic denial of rights and opportunities through racism, homophobia and transphobia, as well as poverty, unequal access to healthcare and education, disproportionate incarceration rates, and stigma. Discrimination and oppression impact people differently based on each person’s unique and intersectional identities, and lead to unjust and avoidable differences in health outcomes. 

The HIV/STD/TB (HST) Section commits to promoting health equity in all its work. 

Health equity will be achieved when all people can reach their full health potential and well-being without being disadvantaged by systems of structural violence including racism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, stigma, classism, and other forms of discrimination. 

Achieving health equity requires: 

• The equitable distribution of resources and power resulting in the elimination of gaps in health outcomes between and within social groups, 
• Use of an intersectional lens: Intersectionality asserts that multiple social categories used to group people (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status) intersect at the micro level of individual experience to reflect multiple interlocking systems of privilege and oppression at the macro, social-structural level (e.g., racism, sexism, heterosexism), and 
• Solutions that look beyond traditional health care and government systems to embrace community wisdom and focus on broader social determinants of health (e.g., education, economic opportunity, transportation, housing). 

Visit the End HIV Oregon website at: endhivoregon.org.

End HIV Oregon

On December 1, 2016, World AIDS Day, OHA and its public health and community partners launched End HIV Oregon, the state's strategy to end new HIV infections. It builds on decades of work by community members, and public and private agencies on such programs as prevention education, syringe exchange, and quality care and treatment.

Intersecting Infections

HIV, other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as gonorrhea and chlamydia, and viral hepatitis are often transmitted in the same ways. These infections are commonly spread by having unprotected sex or injecting drugs with equipment used by someone else. Learn more about these infections, services for community members and resources for providers.

HIV, STI, TB and Viral Hepatitis Data