HIV Incidence

 CDC's Richard Wolitski on Turning IAC Rhetoric into Action

See Video
Click for Video
See Video
Richard Wolitski, Ph.D., acting director for the CDC's HIV/AIDS Prevention Division, muses about next steps following the 2008 International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.

Is Julie Gerberding Getting Advice from Steve Jobs?

I guess I should let it go but I'm still annoyed that CDC and JAMA officials treated the roll out of new HIV incidence estimates like Steve Jobs launching a new iPhone.

This product launch offers "consumers" scarcely any new fun features or software improvements, and if we allow the alarming new data to fall into oblivion, it will also fail to give the fight against HIV/AIDS any meaningful utility.

For months, AIDS advocates called for the public release of the data, which CDC admitted this weekend it had finalized in October 2007. An earlier release might have given the Bush administration second thoughts about requesting a $1 million decrease for CDC's domestic HIV prevention programs; spurred presidential candidates to talk more readily about HIV/AIDS in the U.S.; persuaded media pundits and debate moderators to quiz candidates on plans to end the epidemic; led Congress to pass even one of the dozen domestic HIV prevention bills languishing on Capitol Hill or motivated appropriators to finally boost HIV prevention funding or end long-held restrictions on how funding can be used.

No, instead the cult of embargoes prevailed, with no account to the burgeoning public health crisis the very paper in question describes.  read more »

U.S. Presidential Candidates issue statements on domestic epidemic in wake of incidence announcement

Today, the presumptive nominees of the two ruling political parties of the United States issued statements in respond to CDC's release of data confirming higher rates of HIV incidence in the U.S.
McCain still has not called for a national AIDS strategy, which is a leading priority of hundreds of local, state and national HIV/AIDS groups, and has not released an HIV/AIDS platform. Obama's HIV/AIDS platform includes both domestic and global components, and is linked at the very bottom of his website page on health care.

Do the candidates' statement go far enough towards a viable plan for combatting the domestic epidemic? Read the full post and decide for yourself -- comments welcome!
Obama Responds to CDC Numbers on HIV/AIDS

Senator Obama released the following statement on the Center for Disease Control's report about new cases of HIV/AIDS in the United States.

"We have now learned that 56,300 new HIV infections occurred in the United States in 2006, not 40,000 that had been previously cited. These new figures should bring new focus to our efforts to address AIDS and HIV here at home.

Yep, it's GAY alright

Remember a couple of years ago when the LA Gay and Lesbian Center ran ads like the one above?

Lot's of folks - gay and not - got their panties in a knot about this campaign.

"It´s not a gay disease anymore. The 'face of AIDS´has changed"

"A disease cannot have a sexuality."

"This campaing stigmatizes us even more."

And yadda yadda. Fact is - then and now - HIV is quite prevalent among gay men and men who have sex with men the world over, alarmingly so. In the United States and all over the place. Read previous blog posts right here that, sadly, tragically. back these claims up.

Pretending HIV is somehow a generalized epidemic just doesn´t sit with the facts in MOST of the world. Making believe that AIDS is everyone´s business, and that everyone is at risk, does no one a favor.  read more »

The Worst Kept "Secret" in Public Health

For more than a year, U.S. federal officials have attempted—sometimes in vain—to quell rumors that the number of new HIV infections in the United States is on the rise. The Washington Blade first broke the story in November 2007, reporting that the CDC was poised to raise the official estimate for the number of HIV infections believed to occur in the United States to a range as high as 58,000 to 63,000 per year—a greater than 50 percent increase over the current estimate of 40,000 annual HIV infections.

By December 2007, World AIDS Day media coverage in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg News, The Associated Press and other outlets amplified the leaks. They also described growing frustration among AIDS community advocates with delays in making the important research findings public.
 read more »

About

AIDS2008.com is an independent community resource sponsored by Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP) for the 2008 International AIDS Conference. read more »

Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy & Disclaimer