The Indian Health Service (IHS) announces that competitive cooperative agreement applications are now being accepted by the IHS Office of Clinical and Preventive Services (OCPS) for the National Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) Program.

This program

credit: Wikimedia Commons

is authorized under the Snyder Act, 25 U.S.C.

13, and the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, 25 U.S.C.

§1602(a)(b)(42)(43).

This program is described under 9 3. 933 in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA).

There will be only one funding cycle during Fiscal Year (FY) 201 0. Enhancement of HIV/AIDS testing activities in American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) people is necessary to reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS in those communities by increasing access to HIV related services, reducing stigma, and making testing routine.

This open competition seeks to expand fiscal resources to increase the number of AI/AN with awareness of his/her HIV status.

The cooperative agreements will provide routine HIV screening for adults as per 2006 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, and pre- and posttest counseling (when appropriate).

These cooperative agreements will be used to identify best practices to enhance HIV testing, including rapid testing and/or conventional HIV antibody testing, and to provide a more focused effort to address HIV/AIDS prevention in AI/AN populations in the United States.