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BRENT MINO
Friday, April 11, 2008
REGARDLESS
OF
WHO
is
elected
the
next
president
of
the
United
States,
he
or
she
will
come
into
office
facing
a
persistent
and
increasingly
complex
AIDS
crisis
here
at
home.
The
Centers
for
Disease
Control
recently
estimated
that
approximately
1.2
million
people
are
living
with
HIV
in
the
United
States
and
new
infection
rates
are
on
the
rise
yet
again.
While
President
Bush
deserves
credit
for
his
approach
to
the
global
epidemic,
his
response
to
AIDS
here
in
the
U.S.
has
been
somewhat
disappointing.
Here
are
six
suggestions
that
the
next
president
should
consider
to
fight
AIDS
here
at
home.
•
Appoint
a
surgeon
general
and
AIDS
czar.
It’s
hard
to
believe
that
we
have
been
without
these
two
key
health
policy
positions
for
more
than
three
years.
Bush’s
surgeon
general
nominee,
Dr.
James
Holsinger,
is
at
best
a
nominal
candidate
and
should
be
rejected
at
his
upcoming
Senate
hearing.
Bush
appointees
like
the
Global
AIDS
Coordinator,
Mark
Dybul,
demonstrate
that
this
administration
has
the
capacity
to
select
strong
candidates
when
it
chooses.
We
need
and
deserve
better
in
this
sensitive
position.
The
lack
of
a
permanent
Director
of
National
AIDS
Policy
certainly
explains
why
there
has
been
such
little
public
activity
or
any
new
initiatives
in
domestic
AIDS
programs.
While
the
White
House
is
quick
to
point
out
that
it
did
not
eliminate
the
position
(as
was
once
suggested
in
internal
discussions),
it
has
become
virtually
invisible,
which
in
some
ways
is
worse.
•
Lift
the
HIV
travel
ban
policy.
After
years
of
an
embarrassing
and
biased
ban
against
people
with
HIV
being
able
to
travel
or
immigrate
to
the
U.S.
without
first
securing
a
waiver,
there
is
finally
realistic
activity
on
Capitol
Hill
to
remove
this
requirement.
Not
only
does
this
policy
reinforce
the
negative
stigma
of
HIV,
it
is
an
impractical
approach
and
discourages
honesty
while
offering
a
false
sense
of
security.
The
United
States
should
abandon
this
misguided
policy
that
only
such
“progressive”
nations
like
North
Korea,
Sudan
and
Iran
have
in
place.
•
Fund
domestic
care
and
treatment
programs
sufficiently.
No
matter
where
a
person
with
HIV
lives
in
this
country,
he
or
she
should
have
equal
access
to
life-saving
medications
and
therapies.
Programs
like
the
Early
Treatment
of
HIV
Act
(ETHA)
would
be
a
tremendous
step
forward
to
expand
funding
instead
of
continuing
the
barbaric
practice
of
divvying
up
the
same
shrinking
pie
of
available
federal
dollars.
Every
major
study
has
demonstrated
that
early
treatment
has
proven
to
be
cost-effective
and
actually
reduces
the
spread
of
HIV.
•
Allow
science
to
guide
prevention
efforts.
Why
AIDS
prevention
programs
are
still
treated
like
a
political
football
is
baffling
and
dangerous.
While
AIDS
education
should
be
age-appropriate,
it
should
not
be
so
compromised
as
to
be
ineffective.
Recent
studies
showing
how
roughly
25
percent
of
all
teenage
girls
have
been
diagnosed
with
a
sexually
transmitted
disease
is
clear
evidence
that
adolescent
sex
is
alive
and
well
—
just
like
when
all
of
us
were
growing
up.
THE
MORE
WE
talk
openly
and
truthfully
about
HIV,
the
better
chance
we
will
have
to
encourage
safe
behavior,
reduce
stigma
about
getting
tested,
address
touchy
issues
like
substance
abuse,
syringe
exchange,
and
“down
low”
behavior,
which
should
ultimately
reduce
new
infections.
•
Continue
research
efforts.
Recent
failures
in
vaccine
trials
have
prompted
some
to
call
for
such
efforts
to
be
abandoned.
The
expansion
of
the
medical
knowledge
base
over
the
last
20
years
is
extraordinary
and
would
have
never
happened
without
such
research.
The
idea
of
stopping
such
efforts
is
ludicrous.
I’m
sure
glad
the
people
calling
for
the
elimination
of
these
programs
weren’t
around
when
the
Wright
Brothers,
Louis
Pasteur
or
Thomas
Edison
failed
in
their
initial
efforts.
•
Host
a
White
House
summit
on
domestic
HIV/AIDS.
When
I
served
on
the
Presidential
Advisory
Council
on
HIV/AIDS,
we
unanimously
passed
a
motion
in
2003
encouraging
President
Bush
to
hold
such
a
meeting.
It
didn’t
happen.
We
have
lost
our
focus
about
AIDS
in
this
country
and
operate
under
a
“if
it
ain’t
broke,
don’t
fix
it”
mentality.
HIV
is
100
percent
preventable
and,
yet,
we
still
have
more
than
40,000
new
infections
in
the
United
States
every
year.
We
need
to
address
the
new
challenges
of
the
AIDS
epidemic
in
this
country
and
a
White
House
Summit
would
offer
the
kind
of
commitment
and
visibility
from
the
very
top
that
is
needed.
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