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Thursday
September 18
2008
5:00pm ET
by Kevin
On "The Hill"
On Tuesday, CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding and I
participated in a Congressional hearing titled, “The
Domestic Epidemic is Worse than We Thought: A Wake-Up
Call for HIV Prevention,” held by Congressman Henry
A. Waxman. Dr. Tony Fauci, Director, National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes
of Health, took part in the hearing.
A second panel of experts including Dr. David Holtgrave from the
Department of Health, Behavior and
Society , Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Dr. Adaora
Adimora from the
UNC
Center of Infectious Diseases; Dr. George Ayala
of RTI International and AIDS Project Los Angeles;
Heather Hauck from the Maryland
AIDS Administration and Chair-Elect,
National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors; and Frank J.
Oldham, Jr. of the National Association of
People with AIDS also provided testimony.
This hearing was important for a number of reasons. The hearing provided an opportunity for
Congressional leaders to engage
further in CDC's newly released
HIV incidence
data. Also, it drew further attention to the key steps that federal agencies
need to take to accelerate our progress on HIV prevention. It also focused on
CDC's professional judgment of what it would take to dramatically reduce new HIV
infections in the United States.
So what does CDC feel needs to be done to accelerate HIV prevention efforts
and accomplishments domestically? Well, in our professional judgment, increased
efforts are needed in three domains: (1) identifying HIV-infected individuals
and improving the reach of effective prevention services; (2) improving research
to develop and disseminate new and effective prevention tools; (3) improving the
tracking, monitoring and evaluation of HIV and our prevention efforts.
Key themes within each domain include supporting a coordinated and integrated
approach to tackling HIV and health disparities; understanding and responding to
the social determinants of HIV transmission; improving local-and
community-level understanding and responses to HIV; and improving measurement of
our programs and accountability to those affected by HIV.
As I returned home to Atlanta following this exciting day, I am hopeful that we
have begun a new chapter in our national dialogue on HIV. I hope that these
conversations will reverberate in the halls of Congress, and also inspire
further conversation and action in homes, schools, health-care settings,
businesses, community and faith-based organizations and neighborhoods across the country in the weeks and months ahead.
 Submit a comment -
Comment Policy
Dr. Fenton,
I'd suggest that you consider using partnerships
with social health networks to improve both the
reach of prevention service information AND
prevention tools. Online health communities can
broadcast information quickly to thousands of
people. If your center can create handy widgets
that people LIKE to use or can package
information in a remarkable way, ideas can catch
on like wildfire. Social networks like ours,
www.ehealthforum.com,
have the power to spread health news quickly...
to targeted audiences. Start thinking about
disseminating information virally, and you can
help prevent the real viruses.
Lee Weber
Community Director
http://ehealthforum.com
Received from Lee Weber, on Thursday, September
25,
2008 at 1:56 pm ET
Comment
Dr. Fenton,
I am so glad that you were able to bring the
word to Congress about the domestic HIV
situation. I am concerned, however, that when
you speak of prevention issues you may not also
highlight the further need for treatment
resources to address the new infections each
year. I realize that this is not the purview of
your agency, but you also need to be an advocate
for sufficient funding of treatment for those
diagnosed with HIV. We who are funding through
Ryan White funding have struggled through
flat-funding for many years, too many years. Our
resources are now very thin and our staff are
burning the candle at both ends trying to meet
the needs of the clients who come through our
doors. Please be an advocate not only for
prevention but for treatment as well -- the two
are irretrievably interlinked.
Janice R. Hand
Program Director
Wisconsin HIV Primary Care Support Network
Medical College of Wisconsin
Received from Janice R. Hand, on Wednesday, September
24,
2008 at 9:56 am ET
Comment
Dr. Fenton,
A key predicate for the new incidence data was
improved reporting and testing. I did a
presentation to the Presidential Advisory
Council on HIV/AIDS in 2005 on the history of
the special rules for HIV reporting and
suggestions about how to move to standard public
health reporting and testing. As part of that
presentation I collected resources on public
health law reporting and testing which may be
useful for your readers. These are available at:
http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cphl/slides/aids-com.htm
Edward P. Richards
Director, Program in Law, Science, and Public
Health
Harvey A. Peltier Professor of Law
LSU Law Center
Received from Edward Richards, on Saturday, September
20,
2008 at 8:27 am ET
Comment
Dr. Fenton,
Yes we must address “a coordinated and
integrated approach to tackling HIV and health
disparities; understanding and responding to the
social determinants of HIV transmission;
improving local-and community-level
understanding and responses to HIV; and
improving measurement of our programs and
accountability to those affected by HIV.” In
order to be successful we should include all of
our “village” including our Elders and our
Youth.
Seh, Native Images, Tucson, AZ
Received from Seh Welch, on Friday, September 19,
2008 at 5:41 pm ET
Comment
Dr. Fenton,
I have been in this arena since August of 1974
and I am tied of people, studies and research
that go no where near the main subject that we
must approach to stem STD/HIV transmission. The
problem has an habitual base and we continue to
try to use pills and drugs to correct/compensate
for a simple lack of discipline. We said just
say no to drugs and abstinence is the answer to
eliminating STD/HIV transmission.
We allow fear, by parents, of sexual activity by
our youth to kept proper education about sex and
sexuality from being a regular part of their
education. Those of us that are charged with
this part of public health can only go to
schools when invited and most often are
restricted in what we are allowed to say. What I
would like to see CDC produce is a curriculum
for K to 12 education about diseases and
sexuality. One that would allow for the students
gain a common understanding of their
sexual/social responsibilities and give them an
information base for decision making. Then I
would like CDC to advocate for it's inclusion in
the national educational curriculum as a part of
our disease suppression strategy. I worked for
CDC during the time we supplied staff to do the
basic jobs in public health and based upon the
inability of the states to staff properly for
prevention efforts now we need to return to
those days to supply the educators for a
universal approach to this problem.
When talking to young people I am often struck
by the lack of dept of knowledge about their
bodies. I had an 11th grader ask me in front of
a mixed , male/female, group how could he
determine if he was circumcised or not. Since I
could not just ask him to present his penis for
inspection the Teacher pulled-up a picture on
the internet so that he could make the
determination for himself. I remember talking to
a Teacher during my daughter's senior year in
high school and she explained that the reason
she listed my daughter on her class roster was
because she always wanted to teach a student
like my daughter. One who had the potential of
learning anything. I wanted to tell her that she
should believe they all have that same
potential, but I could see that she was already
defeated and knew that her students were doomed
as well. Let's give our youth the chance to
learn some simple truths that could save if not
their lives at minimum the quality of their
lives.
Received from John Hopkins, on Friday, September 19,
2008 at 9:43 am ET
Comment
Last
Modified:
12/11/2008
Last Reviewed: 09/03/2008
Content Source:
National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral
Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention |
