The National Library of Medicine (NLM) is pleased to announce the solicitation of quotations from organizations and libraries to design and conduct projects that will improve access to HIV/AIDS related health information for patients, the affected community, and their caregivers.

Projects must involve  one or more of the following information access categories:
•    Information retrieval
•    Skills development
•    State-of-the-art resources
•    Resource development
•    Document Access.

Emphasis is placed upon the following types of organizations or arrangements for developing these programs:
•    Community-based organizations (CBOs) or patient advocacy groups currently providing HIV/AIDS related serves to the affected community
•    Public libraries serving communities in the provision of HIV/AIDS-related information and resources
•    Health departments or other local, municipal, or state agencies working to improve public health
•    Faith-based organizations currently providing HIV/AIDS-related services
•    Multi-type consortia of the above-listed organizations that may be in existence or formed specifically for this project.

Standard Awards are offered for up to $60,000;  Express Awards are offered for up to $10,000.

Quotations are due to NLM on Monday, June 1, 2009.

The solicitation for the 2009 HIV/AIDS Community Information Outreach Projects is posted at http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/hiv/2009aidsrfq.html

CDC announced a new 5-year communication campaign, Act Against AIDS http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/aaa, which aims to combat complacency about the HIV crisis in the United States. The campaign – which highlights the alarming statistic that every 9½ minutes another person in United States becomes infected with HIV – features targeted messages and outreach to the populations most severely affected by HIV, beginning with African-Americans.

CDC also announced the Act Against AIDS Leadership Initiative, a partnership with 14 of the nation’s leading African-American organizations to integrate HIV prevention into each organization’s outreach programs The materials direct Americans to “get the facts” by going to the Web site http://www.nineandahalfminutes.org as a first step toward learning how they can help protect themselves and others. The site provides basic education about HIV as well as referrals to HIV prevention and testing services and organizations throughout the nation.

MTV and the Kaiser Family Foundation, working with Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and its nationwide network of health centers, and other partners nationwide, today officially unveiled GYT: “Get Yourself Tested,” a campaign to increase testing for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among those under 25 years old.

http://www.gyt09.org/ – The central hub of the campaign, gyt09.org is a comprehensive information resource that includes facts about STDs; talking tips on how to discuss STD testing with partners, parents, and health care providers; and a testing location finder that connects users to local testing resources by simply entering a zip code. A wide range of GYT-based content, including all of the participating artists and celebrities, are also showcased on the site. [posted on the Kaiser Family Foundation]

Cultural Competency and Tuberculosis Care: A guide for self-study and self-assessment
http://www.umdnj.edu/globaltb/products/tbculturalcompguide.htm
This print resource was developed for the public health workforce and other healthcare providers. It is intended as a tool to begin to explore the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for cultural competency in general, with a focus on TB control activities. The guide utilizes a culture general perspective and includes a self-assessment tool, teaching cases and links to other cultural competency resources. [posted on CLAStalk listserv]

Planning for Healthy Places with Health Impact Assessments
is a ‘how to’ guide for conducting health impact assessments (HIAs), developed by the American Planning Association and the National Association of County & City Health Officials, sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This online course will explain the value of conducting an HIA and the steps involved in conducting an HIA. Throughout the course, examples of health impact assessments have been highlighted and discussed. This course is available for free, thanks to a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For more information please visit the following URL: http://professional.captus.com/Planning/hia/default.aspx

Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Wyoming will come together to provide a regional conference on educational basics of sexually transmitted diseases June 10-12, 2009 at the Kansas City Airport Hilton. Key note speakers will include: Jeanne White-Ginder, mother of Ryan White; Kenya Masala, expert on kinesthetic learning modules; and Forrest L Alton, Executive Director at the South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

ONLINE registration only.
For more information and registration go to http://www.ksde.org and scroll down the left side of the page to find the conference.

CEU’s will be available for nurses. For nurses: Please bring your nursing license.
CHES credits will be available.
Two hours of graduate credit through Baker University will be available on site, June 10, 2009 at an additional cost of $50 an hour. [posted on Kansas Rural Health Information Service]

National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD) is March 10, 2009. The purpose of this annual day is to raise awareness of the increasing impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls and encourage women and girls to take action. Find or plan an event, issue or view proclamations, and learn more about HIV/AIDS by visiting http://www.womenshealth.gov/NWGHAAD/ [Healthy Women Today Newsletter - March 2009]

Alaska Organization Uses Online Social Networking To Spread HIV/AIDS Prevention Messages
The Alaska AIDS Assistance Association http://www.alaskanaids.org/ is utilizing Internet outreach in an effort to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections, KTVA.com reports. The project, Power-On Alaska.org http://www.poweronalaska.org/index.php, posts links to the Web site on social networking sites around that state, offering information and assistance online. Alex Barros, a counselor for the association, said that viewers see a profile that says, “I’m your Power-On Alaska health counselor, if you have any questions about your sexual health or you need information or a referral, click here.” A chat window then will open, allowing the user to ask questions and receive responses in real time from Power-On counselors. Barros said the program is designed to reach out to people who need information but might not feel comfortable seeking it. He said that the “idea of the Web is that it gives complete anonymity with a screen name so people ask more intimate questions of our counselors, they’re not embarrassed.” [Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report - Monday, February 23, 2009]

Improving Quality and Achieving Equity
A New Guide for Hospital Leaders to Address Inequities in Health Care
The Disparities Solutions Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has released a new report, Improving Quality and Achieving Equity: A Guide for Hospital Leaders. http://www.rwjf.org/qualityequality/product.jsp?id=38208 [posted on RWJF Content Alerts]

Partnership for the Public’s Health Initiative Final Report
The Center for Community Health and Evaluation and The California Endowment are pleased to announce the release of the final report on the legacy evaluation of the Partnership for the Public’s Health Initiative. The Legacy of Partnership http://cche.org/conference/2008/publications/cche-publications_LegacyOfPartnership.pdf presents findings from an evaluation conducted four years after funding ended and demonstrates what is possible when health departments and communities are able to work successfully together over a long period of time. The report features the PPH Initiative’s legacies for community groups, health departments, communities and the state of California, as well as key lessons about sustaining community-based public health. Individual “Focus on Enduring Legacy” stories describe the successes of the partnerships studied for the evaluation. [Community-Campus Partnerships for Health ]

Computer Technology-Based HIV Prevention Interventions
A fact sheet discussing the advantages of computer-based interventions to promote positive changes in behaviors to reduce HIV transmission and infection.
Organization: Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention
http://www.indiana.edu/~aids/RCAPFact_Sheet_22r3lr.pdf

February 7, 2009 is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day http://www.blackaidsday.org/

A statement from Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases states:

The scourge of HIV/AIDS, which continues to affect the African-American community disproportionately, highlights the importance of a comprehensive strategy to address the U.S. epidemic. African-Americans make up 12 percent of the U.S. population but account for nearly half of all new HIV infections [1] and almost half of all Americans living with HIV. [2] Recent analyses by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveal that in 2006, more new HIV infections occurred among young black men who have sex with men than in any other segment of the U.S. population. That same year, black women acquired new HIV infections at 15 times the rate of white women. [3] If African-Americans were a country, they would form the 35th most populous nation in the world but would rank 16th in the number of people living with the virus. [4]

Visit http://AIDS.gov for comprehensive government-wide information on HIV/AIDS; visit http://www.aidsinfo.nih.gov/ for information about prevention, treatment and clinical trials; and visit http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/civilrights/resources/specialtopics/hiv/ for information on protecting the civil rights and health information privacy rights of people infected with HIV.

You can read the entire statement at http://www.nih.gov/news/health/feb2009/niaid-04.htm

Some teenagers and young adults might overestimate how often they use condoms during sex, according to a study published recently in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Reuters Health reports ( http://tinyurl.com/a38sh6 ). Eve Rose of Emory University and colleagues conducted the study among 715 black women and girls ages 15 to 21 who were enrolled in an HIV prevention program. An abstract of the study is available online. http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/163/1/61 [posted on Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report  - Thursday, January 15, 2009]