Friday, April 4, 2025
4/4/2025
Great Plains ETHIC Program - The Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board (GPTLHB) recognizes the imperative need to reduce the disproportionate impact of HIV, HCV, and syphilis on American Indian and Alaska Native persons by supporting tribal communities to directly increase diagnoses, treatment, and prevention. Founded in 1986, GPTLHB stands as a formal representative board of the seventeen federally recognized Tribes and one service unit in the four-state Great Plains Area (GPA) of Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The mission of GPTLHB, a 501(c)(3) community-based tribal organization, is to serve tribal communities and provide quality public health support and healthcare advocacy to improve the health status and eradicate health disparities among the region's estimated 215,8501 tribal members. GPTLHB, through its administration of Oyate Health Center (OHC), operates a tribally managed health system that serves as a specialty care referral site for urgent care and primary preventative services in Rapid City, SD. The vision of the GPTLHB is for all tribal nations and communities to reach optimum health and wellness through lasting partnerships and culturally significant values empowered by tribal sovereignty. Hecel Oyate Kin Nipi Kte, So That The People May Live. American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) experience a disproportionately high HIV/HCV/syphilis burden in the GPA. AI/AN data is limited, but what is available demonstrates the need for more effective HIV/HCV/syphilis prevention, diagnosis, and treatment programs in the GPA. For example, from 2019 to 2020, HCV diagnosis rates for AI/AN in Nebraska were almost four times higher than those of white residents (173.1 vs. 59.4 per 100,000 persons) and rates for AI/AN in North Dakota reached 1,359.4 per 100,000 compared to 117.5 per 100,000 for whites in the state. In 2022, South Dakota had the highest syphilis rates and the second-highest congenital syphilis rates in the country. These rates are driven by disease burden among the AI/AN population; in available 2023 data, AI/ANs represent only 11% of South Dakota’s population and yet comprise nearly 78% of all early syphilis cases and over 87% of all congenital syphilis cases. HIV rates are also increasing in South Dakota, and at least one HIV cluster has been linked to the syphilis outbreak thus far. Only 52% of AI/ANs diagnosed with HIV are retained in care, and 64% are virally suppressed. Due to the recognized correlation between HIV and syphilis outbreaks, increased HIV case numbers are expected in the GPA in connection to the ongoing syphilis epidemic. GPTEC is applying for Focus Area Three – Supporting Special Initiatives of Regional and National Significance in Indian Country, to conduct program activities focusing on clinical capacity assessment, regional advocacy, and systems improvement. These activities support the program goal of ending the HIV/HCV/Syphilis syndemic in the Great Plains Area through developing and disseminating data-driven strategies to expand HIV/HCV/syphilis and other STI diagnosis, prevention, and treatment services based on local resources, needs, and values. During the five-year program period, staff will conduct three broad activities across four Operational Strategies: a clinical capacity assessment of GPA facilities that provide HIV/HCV/Syphilis care to AI/AN communities; the creation of a GPA AI/AN Ending the HIV/HCV/Syphilis Syndemic Strategic Plan (using information from the clinical capacity assessment, national strategic plans, and stakeholder input); and the expansion of epidemiological services to the GPA Tribes by hiring an epidemiologist to maintain real-time data dashboards, technical assistance, and data training.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).