Campaign to End AIDS Plans March in Mississippi to Call for National Strategy to Combat HIV/AIDS

The Campaign to End AIDS has planned a march in Mississippi in an effort to call for a national strategy to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS, the AP/Biloxi Sun Herald reports. The march will begin Saturday in Jackson, Miss., and end Sept. 23 in Oxford, Miss. Eric Bailey, a member of the group, is leading the march in Mississippi and said the group believes that the state is at the center of the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic (AP/Biloxi Sun Herald, 9/7).

Related Opinion Piece, Letter

• Larry Bryant, Virginian-Pilot: The U.S. is not doing "nearly enough" to fight HIV/AIDS, and the "epidemic can no longer be addressed with a piecemeal, patchwork approach," Bryant, co-chair of the Campaign to End AIDS and national advocacy director for Housing Works, writes in a Virginian-Pilot opinion piece. According to Bryant, presidential nominees Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) "must both commit to begin developing a national AIDS strategy within their first 100 days in office" that "set[s] ambitious and credible [HIV] prevention and treatment targets and require[s] annual reporting on progress toward goals." Bryant adds that such a strategy should involve "government, business, communities, civil rights organizations, faith-based groups, researchers and people living with HIV/AIDS" that are "ready and willing to do their part to end AIDS." According to Bryant, the national HIV/AIDS plan should "identify priorities across federal agencies and assign responsibilities and time lines for follow-through." He adds that research on "HIV prevention and treatment must be central." The national plan also should "focus on prevention and treatment among communities most impacted by the epidemic," Bryant writes. Bryant concludes that the U.S. "can no longer shy away from the truth that HIV/AIDS is our problem -- a serious national problem that requires a serious national solution" (Bryant, Virginian-Pilot, 9/7).
  Advertisement

• Douglas Brooks, New York Times: There is a "moral imperative to reignite concern about HIV transmission among" men who have sex with men, as well as to "heighten awareness among blacks about the devastating impact of HIV on the lives of our people," Brooks, vice president of health service at the Justice Resource Institute and a board member of the AIDS Action Council, writes in a Times letter to the editor. He adds that there also is a need to "eliminate the stigmatization, discrimination and denial that hinder prevention, testing and treatment with both groups." According to Brooks, the U.S. needs a "national AIDS strategy with measurable goals and objectives for reducing new infections, increasing testing and getting those who are infected into early treatment." He adds, "Our next president must take the lead on this plan" (Brooks, New York Times, 9/8).

Back to other news for September 2008