Fight HIV in DC

This past week marked the beginning of a new campaign from D.C.'s HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD, and TB Administration (HAHSTA) to fight HIV in D.C. A focus on availability of, access to, and education about female condoms has helped make more choices available for men and women who want to be having safer sex. The new female condom (FC2) came out last year, and through grants (notably, one from MAC AIDS FUND) a large number of female condoms are now available to distribute in the District.

A campaign to spread information about the availability and use of the FC2's was started under the name D.C.'s Doin' It. Their website is DCDoinIt.com.

HAHSTA is also promoting the use of these condoms for anal sex, as they are still very safe for that. In addition, FC2's can be a better way to have safer sex, as the top ring covers more surface area than a regular condom does, helping prevent STI's that are transmitted solely through skin contact.

In addition to all of this great news, FC2's will now be available for purchase at all CVS's in D.C.. FC2's are not available for purchase in a retail chain anywhere else in the country.

Many news sources are covering this great step forward in empowering women to be able to make safer sex choices, and to help stop the spread of HIV in D.C. A few links are available below.

NPR

Yahoo! News

MSNBC

Washington Post

Newsweek

CNN

Save the date!

DC Fights Back & AIDS Vote 2010 Present: DC HIV & AIDS Candidate Forum:

August 11, 2010
6:00 - 7:30 pm
Eastern Market

(More information forthcoming)

Every Wednesday

5:30-6:30pm

Prevention Works!
2501 Benning Rd NE

Stretch, strengthen, and let go of stress by joining this weekly mindfulness class that combines yoga, meditation, and breathing exercises. After a few yoga stretches that can help sooth aches and tension, we calm and center through meditation. Breathing exercises can also help us pause, energize, cope, and relax. These free classes are open to anyone who wants respectfully to join in. No special clothing is required, but you will be asked to take your shoes off during class. YogaActivist.org volunteer teachers lead these mindfulness classes, because they want to share the same practices that help them so much. We look forward to practicing with you soon!

The Kaiser Family Foundation and the Center for Strategic and International Studies will hold an Aug. 5 forum examining the major policy, research and other developments arising from the 2010 International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2010) in Vienna. The discussion will examine the implications of a leveling of donor nation support for global AIDS relief efforts during last year’s economic crises and the scientific progress reported on HIV treatment and prevention, including promising results from a microbicide clinical trial, potentially providing an important new HIV prevention tool for women. The panel will provide a look ahead to the 2012 conference, to be held in Washington, DC, and also examine the new U.S. strategy for combating HIV domestically.

View webcasts of sessions from the AIDS 2010 conference.

WHEN:

9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Thursday, August 5, 2010 (Breakfast and registration at 9 a.m.)

WHO:

Chris Beyrer, Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and member, International AIDS Society Governing Council

Jeffrey Crowley, Director of the U.S. Office of National AIDS Policy, White House

Deborah von Zinkernagel, Principal Deputy Global AIDS Coordinator, Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator

Phill Wilson, Executive Director, Black AIDS Institute

Katherine Bliss, Deputy Director, CSIS Global Health Policy Center

Lisa Carty, Deputy Director and Senior Adviser, CSIS Global Health Policy Center

Jennifer Kates, Vice President and Director of Global Health and HIV Policy, Kaiser Family Foundation

WHERE:

Barbara Jordan Conference Center (Kaiser Family Foundation Office)
1330 G Street, NW, Washington, DC (one block west of Metro Center)

RSVP:

Please register online to attend this event.

CONTACT:

For further information, please email Craig Palosky or call (202) 347-5270.

Statement of Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.
Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases National Institutes of Health on Results from the CAPRISA 004 Microbicide Study

"Today we congratulate the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) and the people of South Africa on the positive findings from the CAPRISA 004 microbicide study, which marks a significant milestone both for the microbicide research field and HIV prevention as a whole.

For years, antiretroviral medicines have been effectively used to treat HIV infection. Through the successful conduct of the CAPRISA 004 study, we now have proof that an antiretroviral drug, in this case tenofovir, can be formulated into a vaginal gel that can protect women against HIV infection. Given that women make up the majority of new HIV infections throughout the world this finding is an important step toward empowering an at-risk population with a safe and effective HIV prevention tool.

For more information, go to http://www.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2010/Pages/CAPRISA.aspx."

From The DC Center:

Below are links to various articles from news outlets around the country today about the study's results.

CNN

Science Daily

NPR

The New York Times

Join us for the next Capital Area Vaccine Effort Meeting on September 8th at 7:00 PM at the DC Center for the LGBT Community, 1318 U Street NW. The DC is located a short distance from the U Street Cardozo Metro Station.

We will be planning our fall HIV prevention research fall lunch series and planning for our Fall Retreat. Please note there will be no monthly meeting in August.

Capital Area Vaccine Effort is a volunteer panel of individuals from the general public and from the diverse communities affected by AIDS. CAVE serves as the community advisory board for the Vaccine Research Center and the Rockville Vaccine Assessment Clinic. CAVE is organized to assist and advise AIDS vaccine trials in the metropolitan DC area.

The following is an announcement from Carole Treston, Executive Director of AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth, and Families, about the Opening Session of the Internation Conference on AIDS.

"Vienna - July 18, 2010

It's interesting to be viewing this conference with an eye to the future. What can we learn here as we prepare for AIDS 2012 in DC? The 2010 conference theme is "Right Here Right Now" and much of the content is on the intersection of human rights and HIV prevention and access to treatment. Each conference has a theme and some conferences produce a declaration. What will be our theme in 2012 and will we have a collective focus that produces a single issue declaration? In 2008 in Mexico City the theme was "Universal Action Now." There, Ministers of Education and Health from Latin America and the Caribbean countries signed a historic declaration pledging to provide comprehensive sex education as part of the school curriculum in Latin America and the Caribbean. Vienna as the 2010 host city allows for an examination of the epidemic's impact in Eastern Europe. Today, the Vienna Declaration was released and its opening statement is: "The criminalization of illicit drug use is fueling the HIV epidemic and has resulted in overwhelming negative health and social consequences." This is an appropriate focus for this conference, as the impact of drug use on HIV incidence is high and in particular in Eastern Europe. Last night in the Opening Session, I learned that more than 500 new infections occur each day in the 18 countries that make up Eastern Europe/Central Asia. Many of those countries are part of the former USSR. The Vienna Declaration continues, "It is a scientific statement seeking to improve community health and safety by calling for the incorporation of scientific evidence into illicit drug policies. We are inviting scientists, health practioners and the public to endorse this document in order to bring these issues to the attention of governments and international agencies and to illustrate that drug policy reform is a matter of urgent international significance." One speaker from South Africa, Paula Akugizibwe, labeled prisons in this current context as an epidemiological pump for HIV worldwide. The rate of HIV infection in prisons is high around the world. We think there is a link in our communities, with high rates of revolving incarceration in men often for low-level drug offenses, and high rates of heterosexual spread to women in those same communities. It's all interconnected. To view the Vienna Declaration and sign on go to www.viennadeclaration.com.

Ms. Akugizbwe is a young woman from AIDS Risk Alliance for Southern Africa. She spoke about aligning HIV/AIDS and human rights around 7 topics: Prisons, IVDU, and Migrants (we call them illegal immigrants- but the challenges they face are universal), LGBT criminalization and stigma (esp. in African countries), sex workers, criminalization of HIV/TB and gender inequalities. All are important, universal and interconnected factors in the HIV epidemic. Her presentation was powerful and intelligent. She opened by playing a rap song "Show me the Money" while flashing pictures of African leaders and recent birthday and other celebrations they held for themselves--and the cost and how many people on ARVs that amount equals. Young people speaking truth to power--and to tens of thousands of people! (You can see Lords of the Bling on Youtube.)

Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS talked about some of the recent accomplishments in HIV noting that young people are leading the HIV prevention revolution, that HIV prevalence has dropped among youth in 15 countries as youth are empowered and provided sexual education that provides skills for life. He also once again called attention to the disproportionate impact of HIV on women around the world and stressed that women must have the tools such as female condoms and microbicides to protect themselves and urged us all to demand and ensure full human rights for all women and girls--rights that include an environment free of fear of violence in protecting themselves from HIV.

Finally, there was a young woman, Rachel Arinii from Indonesia representing youth with HIV, given the task of speaking about Young People at AIDS 2010. She celebrated the diversity and creativity of youth around the world and called on the audience for services that are accessible for young people, that barriers such as parental consent must be removed, and for full protection of the rights of girls and young women. She highlighted the fact that youth-led networks are informal and not hierarchal, but are flexible and creative and noted that although we know for HIV prevention one size does not fit all, many programs now require that one size fits all.

It's two years until AIDS 2012 is in the United States. Many of you will have the opportunity to attend and participate. The planning for this is just starting. What will be our theme? What will be the Washington Declaration? AIDS Alliance encourages you to think about the issues that you face daily and that you sense are global too. What are the themes that most impact our communities and also unites us in this effort?

Regards,
Carole Treston"

Community Health Fair

Saturday, July 24^th,

10am-4pm

·         Meet Community Service Providers

·         Tour the Mobile Health Unit

·         Tour the Neighborhood Harm Reduction Center

·         Make Safer-Sex Kits

·         Get an HIV Test

This week, the White House, through the Office of National AIDS Policy, has released a national HIV/AIDS Strategy and Implementation plan. The Vision for the Strategy states;

"The United States will become a place where new HIV infections are rare and when they do occur, every person, regardless of age, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, or socio-economic circumstances, will have unfettered access to high quality, life-extending care, free from stigma and discrimination."

The report then outlines three primary goals. "...1) reducing the number of people who become infected with HIV, 2) increasing access to care and optimizing health outcomes for people living with HIV, and 3) reducing HIV-related health disparities." The report is also accompanied by an Implementation Plan that outlines the "measurable goals, timelines, and accountability mechanisms" that were promised by the President.

You can find the offical Stratgey and its Implementation Plan here.

You can watch a video of the the announcement and launch here at AIDS.gov.

Following is a list of articles about the report, labeled by news source:

ABC News

USA Today

New York Times

Second Wednesday of the Month
(July 14, August 11, September 8)
6-8pm

We will be having our monthly kit making night, listening to music and eating pizza while we  make male condom kits, female condom kits, and wound care kits.

A Quality of Life Retreat for people living with HIV/AIDS will be held from December 6th to December 9th. at the Washington DC Retreat House is operated by Sisters of the Franciscan Order. The Retreat is a chance to It is a chance to get away, to get together, to interact and to learn the techniques and attitudes that are effective in dealing with the issues of long-term survival.

The Retreats have four objectives

1. To provide a safe, living environment in which participants can fully be them selves, free of fears, and inhibitions, and can deal openly with their deepest concerns.

2. To offer spiritual, practical, educational and health resources to those whose lives have been, are and will be affected personally by HIV infection.

3. To listen to what HIV infected persons have to say about their journeys.

4. To offer and develop a viable model of how the religious community can make a compassionate and effective response to this crisis.

To be considered for this retreat, you must fill out an application along with $10 application fee. For more information, visit www.qualityofliferetreatshiv.org.