The Call for a National AIDS Strategy Gets Louder
David Ernesto Munar, Vice President for Policy & Communications for AIDS Foundation of Chicago wrote a blog post below for the Prevention Justice Mobilization, commenting on the need for a national AIDS strategy as well as the CDC’s reluctance to release new HIV infection rate numbers. He is reporting from the National HIV Prevention Conference currently underway in Atlanta
Viral Marketing
By David Munar
ATLANTA–Resolute in its decision to delay the release of alarming new HIV infection estimates, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) kicked off the National HIV Prevention Conference amid widespread anger and concern that the nation may be losing ground in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
With speculation mounting about the motives and content of CDC’s unreleased data, official speeches of compassion and urgency received polite applause from the hundreds of assembled participants who seemed either unmoved or unconvinced.
Remarks from the openly HIV-positive co-chair of the HIV Advisory Committee for CDC and HRSA electrified an otherwise sedated opening plenary. Acknowledging a need to voice what might otherwise not be said, Jesse Milan Jr. told the audience the time had come for the U.S. to develop a national strategy against HIV/AIDS-something federal contracts require of developing nations that accept U.S. taxpayer money for AIDS relief.
Increasingly, the call for a national AIDS strategy is emerging wherever the topic of HIV is discussed. In an era of sustained funding bans for proven effective interventions, such as sterile syringe availability and comprehensive sexuality education, the fledging campaign has become its own promising “structural intervention.”
Inspired by an Open Society Institute report documenting the rationale and components an effective strategy development process, several leading AIDS organizations began promoting the idea among allied organizations earlier this year. The idea took hold like wild fire. More than 180 organizations and hundreds of individuals have endorsed the online “call to action” for a national AIDS strategy thus far.
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