AIDS United Adopts Position on Fiscal Policy

With the U. S. Treasury Department’s August 2 deadline for raising the federal debt limit looming like a Sword of Damocles over their heads, Congress and the White House are intensifying efforts to reach an agreement that would allow a debt limit increase bill to be passed. Given that the important fiscal policy decisions made by Congress and the administration over the next seven weeks will have a huge impact on federal spending and on Medicaid and Medicare for the coming year and many years thereafter, AIDS United has adopted a policy position on the fiscal issues. Read more...

back to top

Commemorating 30 Years of Leadership in the Fight against HIV/AIDS

On June 8th, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) held an event to acknowledge 30 years of leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS to honor the lives lost, the dedication and persistence of advocates, the continued commitment of medical and public health professionals as well as recount stories of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The event featured Dr. Howard Koh, HHS Assistant Secretary for Health, Dazon Dixon Diallo, the founder and CEO of SisterLove, Inc., Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director at the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Daniel Montoya, Deputy Executive Director at National Minority AIDS Council, Amb. Mark Dybul, distinguished scholar at Georgetown University and Inaugural Global Fellow at the George W. Bush Institute, and Dr. Helene Gayle, the President and CEO of CARE-USA and the Chair of the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.

After opening remarks by Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of HHS, a short video was presented that remembered the progression of monumental events and accomplishments over the last 30 years. It can be viewed by clicking here.

back to top

AIDS United Helps to Educate Appropriators Offices on HIV Funding Needs

Over the past three weeks, AIDS United representatives have been conducting meetings with staffers of House and Senate appropriators as part of an AIDS Budget and Appropriations Coalition (ABAC) initiative. The objective of these meetings has been to educate staffs and their bosses on the programmatic needs in the domestic HIV/AIDS portfolio for Fiscal Year 2012 (FY12). In addition to meetings as part of ABAC, AIDS United did many meetings with members of its Public Policy Committee (PPC), the Coalition for Health Funding (CHF), as well as colleagues from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

AIDS United will continue participating in these meetings in an effort to inform offices of the 2012 HIV funding needs.

back to top

Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS Concludes UN High-Level Meeting

On Friday, June 10, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the “Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS: Intensifying Our Efforts to Eliminate HIV/AIDS ” concluding the UN High-Level Meeting on AIDS. The document which will guide the global HIV/AIDS response for the next five years set concrete targets to treat 15 million people living with HIV with anti-retroviral (ARV) medications, to reduce sexual transmission of HIV by 50%, to reduce transmission among people who inject drugs by 50%, to reduce tuberculosis deaths in individuals living with HIV by 50%, and to eliminate mother-to-child transmission by 2015. The declaration also commits to increasing funding between twenty-two and twenty-four billion U.S. dollars in low and middle income countries, to redouble efforts to achieve universal access to prevention, treatment, care, and support.

Several key issues were omitted or downplayed. The document makes no mention of transgender individuals who are at high risk and have high rates of HIV. Housing for individuals living with HIV is not addressed. According to advocates, language that addressed sexual and reproductive health and rights especially of youth was weak and would not lead to needed changes. Drug policy experts expressed additional concern that the language on drug use and harm reduction programs was weakened from the previous declaration and is overly accommodating on criminal penalties for drug use that may deprive individuals from accessing HIV care and treatment. Furthermore, the target for reducing HIV transmission among injection drug users (IDUs) by fifty percent falls short of the UNAIDS goal of eliminating all new infections by 2015.

Positively, the document contained strong language on gender, gender equity and human rights, expressed support for research, and iterated the links between HIV and broader health and development efforts. In addition, it is the first UN General Assembly declaration to explicitly acknowledge transmission in men who have sex with men (MSM), while also recognizing drug users and sex workers. Despite some concerns, most in the HIV community heralded the presence of concrete commitments and strong convictions in the UN declaration on HIV/AIDS to be a largely positive document for the effort to providing universal access for prevention, care, treatment, and support.

Click here to read the declaration and find further information on the high level meeting.

back to top

National Prevention Strategy Released

The U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin and members of the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council released the first National Prevention Strategy on Thursday, June 16th. The Strategy, developed under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), seeks to improve health of individuals, families and communities through a focus on prevention and wellness rather than a health care system that is only focused on disease and sickness response. Its stated overarching goal is to “increase the number of Americans who are healthy at every stage of life” and identifies four strategic directions to realize this vision: healthy and safe community environments; clinical and community preventive services; empowered people, and elimination of health disparities. The strategy also defines seven priorities to address the leading causes of preventable illness and major illness: tobacco free living, preventing drug abuse and excessive alcohol use, healthy eating, active living, injury and violence free living, reproductive and sexual health, and mental and emotional well-being. Read the strategy and learn more about its release.

back to top

Announcements

AIDS Awareness Days
June 27 - National Testing Day

Mapping Pathways
Tell Us What You Think about Antiretroviral-based HIV Prevention Strategies!
AIDS United has joined with AIDS Foundation of Chicago, NAZ India, the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, RAND Europe, and Bairds CMC to launch Mapping Pathways, a multi-national project to develop and nurture a research-driven, community-led global understanding of the emerging evidence base around the adoption of antiretroviral-based prevention strategies to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Please take this survey and inform this cutting edge project.
Click here to take the survey.
Please visit our blog to learn more about Mapping Pathways.

Blog Series to Commemorate 30th Year of Epidemic
To commemorate the 30th year of the AIDS epidemic, AIDS United will begin a blog series focusing on HIV/AIDS over the past 30 years, and we would like to invite our readers, colleagues and stakeholders to submit contributions.

Check out the blog entries we have received so far!

As a guideline, submissions can be up to 1,000 words and might address at least one of the questions below. Or feel free to submit a piece on a topic of your own choice referencing the 30th anniversary of AIDS.

Why is it important that we observe the 30th anniversary of HIV/AIDS?
How have you been personally and/or professionally affected by HIV/AIDS?
What are you most optimistic about moving forward?
What do you have the most concern about moving forward?
How have the following circumstances changed over the last 30 years (choose one or more to answer)?

• Public perception/stigma
• Face of the epidemic
• Clinical knowledge
• Outlook for people living with HIV/AIDS

Send your entries to Jimmy Schneidewind at jschneidewind@aidsunited.org. We look forward to hearing from you!
 

back to top