As the national premiere treatment focused organization by and for women living with HIV/AIDS, Women Alive is proud to announce our National Treatment Education and Advocacy Project. The project has been launched with our newest publication, "Knowledge Action, Health".

A team of Women Alive members consisting of HIV infected women, their advocates and medical advisors has created the "FIRST-EVER" Treatment Guide for women.

Knowledge

"We must begin to make sense of confusing advise and missing data surrounding our HIV treatment choices," said Mary Lucey, co-founder of women alive. "Women have been ignored as HIV treatment decision makers and neglected as AIDS study participants even though we represent the fastest growing population of people in the US and the world. We must turn the tide by arming ourselves with knowledge to live by."

Women must carefully understand key concepts like efficacy, side effects, drug resistance, central nervous penetration, cost and life goals in order to assess the components of a treatment combination. "Knowledge Action Health" helps women with HIV to organize and outline key treatment issues, empowering them to make more educated treatment decisions with their physicians.

The book is designed to help women who are on therapy or considering treatments.

Action

The pocket sized format has action steps to encourage readers to organize and use information important to them. A 'score-card', easy-to-read explanations, diagrams, charts and a glossary helps readers to evaluate potential combination therapies to treat HIV infection.

Health

In a time when "AIDS is the third most common cause of death for American women ages 25-44 and the leading cause of death among African-American women in this age group, we hope that our Treatment Guide will be a tool to help turn these circumstance around for women with the disease.

"Little is known about the effects of HIV drugs on women because of under representation inmost clinical trials." said Judith Currier, MD, MSC, assistant professor of Clinical Medicine at USC and Women Alive's medical advisor. "As physicians we will expand our understanding of the effects and increase our knowledge about results in women through the patient-doctor partnership this guide can help create."

Women Alive works to bring the most up-to-date information to HIV positive women, help them monitor their health through interpretation of their lab results, communicate their needs to medical providers, and advocates to ensure the inclusion of more women in clinical trials.

Getting a Copy

To receive a copy of Knowledge, Action, Health - A Woman's Guide to HIV Treatments contact:

Women Alive
1566 South Burnside Ave.
Mid-City LosAngeles, Ca. 90019
213.965.1564

If you are a woman with HIV/AIDS please call our Peer Support and Treatment Information Hot Line at 800.554.4876 and ask for one.

Women Alive is actively seeking funding for reprinting, postage, shipping and handling costs, in order to widely distribute these work books. Donations in any amount are gratefully accepted. At this time, only single copies are available.

Phase I

The second part of phase-I of our National Women's Treatment Project is to publish a Spanish language version of the guide.

Phase II

Phase II of the project will include, the creation of an AIDS Clinical Trials Network by and for community women and female physicians and researchers affected by the AIDS epidemic.