Some Still Don't Get Prevention Message

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WASHINGTON -- AIDS Action today called on Congress and the Administration to work together to significantly boost the HIV prevention budget at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In light of a CDC report released today suggesting continued high-risk behaviors among those populations most at risk for HIV/AIDS, AIDS Action Director of Government Affairs Jeff Jacobs urged lawmakers to make HIV prevention a priority.

"America should work harder to protect all Americans," said Jacobs. "Refusing to adequately fund effective HIV prevention efforts is reckless. Our members on the front lines in this battle know what frank, targeted prevention messages can do to stem the spread of HIV, but many feel their hands are tied. They need the resources to develop effective prevention campaigns, and they need the freedom to speak the language of the groups most at risk."

A survey conducted by AIDS Action this year (2000) of several community-based AIDS service providers showed that more than one-third of all organizations fear losing some of their funding because of HIV prevention and interventions that they currently provide or would like to provide. Federal, state, or local restrictions on, or review of, the content of prevention materials was a top concern of the organizations, while some cited the federal ban on funding of needle exchange programs.

AIDS Action has long advocated for significant increases in the CDC's HIV prevention budget, and this year called for a $100 million increase for FY 2001.

"The budget figures we've seen in this legislative cycle are not going to make the impact needed to start to slow the rate of new HIV infections," said Jacobs. "The complacency that's washed over people at risk for this disease seems also to have stunted the will of Congress and the Administration to do what's so urgently needed. We can arrest the epidemic in this country, but our political leaders will have to do their part."

Jacobs agreed with an editorial note in the CDC report which stated "(p)revention strategies must provide the information, skills, and support necessary to reduce both sexual and drug-related risk behaviors among (high-risk populations), and include access to drug treatment and to prevention case management." (CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, June 2, 2000)