Cook County officials and health care providers gathered at a Friday news conference to remind residents to get tested and use a condom to protect against sexually transmitted infections.

Latinos account for the largest share of new HIV diagnoses and infections among men who have sex with men — more than any other ethnic and racial demographic, according to an analysis from KFF News-Associated Press. There are over 22,000 people living with HIV in Chicago and the city saw 700 new HIV diagnoses in 2022.

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday announced draft guidelines that would do away with the current three-month abstinence requirement for donations from men who have sex with men. Instead, all potential donors would be screened with a new questionnaire that evaluates their individual risks for HIV.

A new report from the Chicago Department of Public Health says not only are fewer people being diagnosed, but more people who are already living with HIV-AIDS are reaching viral suppression. 

HIV diagnoses in Chicago during 2020 were the lowest reported since 1987, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health’s latest HIV/STI data report.

A recent study from the CDC finds that in a sample of nearly 2,000 people who had monkeypox, 38% also had HIV infection and 41% had an STI in the preceding year. Those rates are much higher than the rates of HIV and STIs in the general population.

People with HIV can no longer be criminally prosecuted for exposing someone else to the virus without their knowledge. Advocates say the law discouraged testing and treatment for HIV — and the repeal is long overdue.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday signed into law a legislation package that aims to advance the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals by, among other provisions, expanding infertility health care coverage for same-sex couples and repealing an HIV criminalization law.

A bill awaiting Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature would repeal the state’s so-called HIV criminal transmission statute, which makes it illegal for people living with HIV to have unprotected sex without disclosing their status to sexual partners.