Link: USA TODAY: President Obama to outline new national HIV/AIDS strategy focusing on reducing new infections, increasing testing and reducing disparities in care
President Obama will gather AIDS experts at the White House today to launch the first national strategy designed to cut new infections, boost the number of people who get tested and treated, and reduce disparities in access to care.The report notes that 1.1 million people in the USA are living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and an additional 56,000 become infected each year, according to statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Yet many Americans no longer view HIV as an urgent health problem, despite the misery it causes and its potential for further spread, the report says.
“Unless we take bold actions,” it warns, “we face a new era of rising infections, greater challenges in serving people living with HIV, and higher health care costs.”
These actions include intensifying HIV prevention efforts in communities hit hardest by the disease; the use of a variety of prevention methods because “no single ‘magic bullet’ will stem the tide of new HIV infections”; and the first national effort in decades to educate “all Americans about the threat of HIV and how to prevent it.”
