The United States (US) Government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), launched the next phase in the United States’ 20-plus years of support for the prevention and treatment of HIV in Papua New Guinea (PNG), the EPIC Project. For the last six years, USAID has partnered with the National Department of Health (NDoH) and the National Capital District (NCD) Provincial Health Authority (PHA) to make the NCD a model district for the prevention, monitoring, and treatment of HIV. Under EPIC, this work will be expanded to Morobe and Eastern Highlands Provinces in partnership with the PHAs. The partnership will work with community-based organizations, key populations, and front-line health workers to support people living with HIV, fight PNG’s HIV epidemic, and address a crisis in vertical transmission. (Mother to child HIV transmission that occurs during pregnancy or at birth.) USAID Country Representative, Nino Nadiradze reaffirmed that the United States is a partner PNG can rely on in the fight against HIV, “USAID is committed to standing with Papua New Guinea to prevent and respond to the HIV epidemic.” The previous phase of United States support for combating HIV in Papua New Guinea - the USAID HIV Support for PNG project - was a six-year, $23.5 million initiative that contributed to the NCD achieving UNAIDS’ 95-95-95 goals for HIV treatment and prevention. That means that over 95% of people living with HIV in the NCD know their status. Of those who know their status, over 95% are on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and over 94% of those on ART have achieved viral suppression and cannot transmit HIV to others. USAID’s HIV support has also pioneered the integration of gender-based violence (GBV) services into HIV care with over 8,000 survivors receiving support. The project also launched the Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) treatment and the Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U) campaign, both of which significantly improved transmission prevention and viral suppression in the NCD. The EPIC Project will expand USAID’s HIV technical assistance to Morobe and Eastern Highlands Provinces to strengthen the capacities of the Provincial Health Authorities to implement their HIV prevention and response programs. The technical assistance will include enhanced HIV and outbreak data management at the provincial level, expansion of integrated HIV and gender-based violence services, expanded PrEP, and other targeted interventions.