Landmark NIH Study Is Wake-Up Call for New Era of Prevention

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Washington, D.C. -- AIDS Action today said a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) study demonstrating the extraordinary effectiveness of targeted HIV prevention programs is a wake-up call for a new era of prevention.

During roughly the same two years during which HIV infection rates have increased, federal prevention funding has remained flat, and no bold prevention initiatives have been proposed by the Clinton Administration. Even worse, a House Appropriations Subcommittee on June 23 will consider federal prevention funding for Fiscal Year 1999 with only a nominal increase on the table.

“While HIV prevention research races ahead of the epidemic, national leadership is standing in place,” said Daniel Zingale, AIDS Action’s executive director. “If we had a medical vaccine, forces would be mobilized to deploy it. Today we have a virtual vaccine, prevention, and those forces are paralyzed.”

The NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health today released a 37 city study of 3,705 men and women of color demonstrating that targeted prevention including multiple group counseling sessions cut high-risk behavior in half and doubled regular condom use. This news contrasts with tragic AIDS statistics within communities of color. Men and women of color represent more than half of all AIDS cases, and, despite a drop in death rates in other categories, AIDS remains the number one killer of African-Americans and Latinos age 25-44.

“President Clinton’s call for a renewed effort on racial equity rings hollow when he fails to adequately fund programs that slow the most lethal epidemic affecting communities of color,” added Zingale. “We need to move the NIH study from the lab to the streets and do it fast. Those too timid to take on Jesse Helms and his insistence on an oxymoronic G-rated prevention strategy are simply copping out.”

AIDS Action’s 1998 State of AIDS Forum will focus a new national dynamic for HIV prevention. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as national and local leaders in the fight against AIDS will participate at the Forum, which will take place July 20 at the National Press Club.

“Until there’s a cure, the most immediate breakthroughs in fighting HIV will come through treating prevention like the vaccine we so desperately crave,” added Zingale.