Fulton County Health Services will receive up to $1 million over three years to help connect more people living with HIV to the care they need to stay healthy.

The three-year initiative also includes Houston and Philadelphia and is funded by the Merck Company Foundation. Some 1.2 million Americans are living with HIV, with 50,000 new infections each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The HIV epidemic in metro Atlanta is primarily concentrated in the downtown area, a study from the Emory University Center for AIDS Research shows.