Dear Partners in Health,

As 2022 comes to a close, I want to thank everyone for all of the caring and dedicated work you have accomplished in the last year—all through a lens of helping people find their best health. Every year brings its challenges and 2022 certainly has had some. But through it all we continued to move forward, putting people first. I am proud to work in an environment where all types of people, despite their needs or circumstances, are respected, I am proud to work in an environment where colleagues respect and celebrate the strengths we share among us, and I am proud of the work we all do in the name of public health.

I want to say a thank you to everyone who has worked on mpox response. Mpox hit us hard back in May and I want to commend everyone for pivoting to work in response to the outbreak. I think Michigan did a great job focusing on non-stigmatizing health education while still using our communication partnerships to reach out to those most affected. While mpox numbers have decreased nationally, Michigan numbers remain at a plateau. We hope to drive those numbers down in 2023 by increasing vaccinations, testing, and provider and patient awareness of the signs and symptoms. There is an updated mpox vaccine strategy in Michigan, which expands vaccine eligibility to anyone who thinks they might be at risk. Michigan’s mpox vaccine eligibility and other mpox information can be found at Michigan.gov/mpox.

2022 also brought a major election year. My hope is that in Michigan, as well as the rest of the country, those we elected provide more opportunities to HIV and STI programs. I would love to see the appropriation of our DIS Supplemental funds. We have sadly lapsed close to 15 million dollars in the last two and a half years that were dedicated to supporting DIS who provide essential, community-based services for testing, treatment, and linkage to care for HIV, syphilis, mpox, hepatitis c, and other STIs. This funding would allow us to make a huge impact in HIV and STI testing and treatment. Some other topics I would love to see gain traction include HIV criminalization reform, a national PrEP program, and better health protections for people who inject drugs.

2023 will see the start of the Michigan Integrated Data Application for STI and HIV (MIDASH) project. MIDASH will take two to three years to complete, and it will integrate all our current HIV/STI data systems into one data system. This will significantly increase our ability to do care coordination across HIV prevention, STI, Ryan White, and other services (like dental and housing). We look forward to your engagement on the project as YOU are the primary user of the system and we want the system to be human centered, user friendly, dynamic, and meet the day-to-day business needs of people working in the field. To learn more about MIDASH, visit Michigan.gov/MIDASH.

In thinking about 2022 coming to an end, I cannot stop feeling an immense amount of gratitude for each one of you who continue to be superstars in public health. The work we do can be hard, tedious, and sometimes emotionally draining, but you continue to show up and work for those who need it the most. I hope in 2023 to be less bogged down by COVID-19 and mpox activities and to really get back to the core of the work we do. I hope that we can continue to support all of you in the field and even get a chance to meet with you and listen with an open ear about issues you are facing or ideas that you have. As always, I am open to listening to your thoughts and ideas about the work we do. Please always feel free to email me at macomberk@michigan.gov. I hope you have a festive holiday season!

Sincerely, 

Katie Macomber

Director, Bureau of HIV and STI Programs