Walmart plans to expand its specialty HIV outreach
In this article WMT Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT
watch now
David Rosario remembers the late 1980s with mixed emotions. He had achieved his goal of becoming a professional dancer in New York City, but in that world he also lost many young male friends to AIDS. There were few treatment options available then for the disease that hit the gay community especially hard. "It was sad at that time," Rosario said. "There was nothing there, so these beautiful people lost their lives." Now, Rosario owns a restaurant in New Jersey with his husband. Every month, he picks up medication at his local Walmart pharmacy that makes HIV undetectable and untransmittable — a prospect that was unthinkable just a generation ago. But that ease of access now gives him hope. "It's not a big, terribly big deal for me, but for a lot of these young boys that are searching for relationships and things, I think it is a game-changer," he said.
Walmart's HIV outreach
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates new HIV infections have fallen 12% in recent years, from 36,500 new cases in 2017 to 32,000 in 2021. Yet racial and ethnic disparities remain pronounced, with people of color accounting for a disproportionate share of new HIV diagnoses. African Americans accounted for 40% of new cases in 2021, and Latinos accounted for 29%, according to CDC data. Walmart launched an HIV specialty-pharmacy pilot program in late 2021, targeting just over half a dozen highly affected communities, including Rosario's county in New Jersey. "We can see from the data that that there's a need here — there's a higher incidence of HIV," said Kevin Host, Walmart pharmacy senior vice president. Now, the retail giant plans to expand its program to more than 80 HIV-specialty facilities across nearly a dozen states by the end of this year.
Shoppers wait in line at the pharmacy of a Walmart store in Charlotte, North Carolina. Callaghan O'Hare | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The company's pharmacists have undergone specialized training on HIV conditions and drugs to treat and prevent the virus. A big part of that is how to begin a conversation with patients who might be at risk. "Getting patients to talk about their status can be a challenge," said pharmacist Gemima Kleine. "There's the stigma around it, and it's better than it used to be, but it's not gone."
Public-private HIV partnership
Source: CNBC
