SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – The federal Indian Health Service is looking to provide financial assistance to tribes, tribal organizations and urban nonprofits across the country to improve HIV prevention and care outcomes among the Native American population. 

The agency will grant up to five awards together totaling no more than $200,000 a year for five years. 

The effort is meant to reduce the number of new HIV infections annually, cut the risk of transmission by changing behavior and encourage an open discussion about the virus.

Rear Adm. Dr. Sarah Linde is the Indian Health Service's acting chief medical officer. She says more HIV education is needed because agency data show that as many as 26 percent of the American Indian and Alaska Native people living with the virus do not know it.