Recently in Prevention Category

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.

The DC Department of Health will provide the following services:

• Testing for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis
• Shots for Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B

These services are free and no appointment is needed...just come on in!

If further information, please contact Mary Beth Levin (mlevin@preventionworksdc.org).

Prevention Works! is located at 2501 Benning Rd, NE.  We have our own parking lot which you are welcome to use.  The X2 bus stops on our block.

 

This training will be offered twice at PreventionWorks! 

Wednesday July 7, 9am-3pm and
Thursday July 8, 9am-3pm

This training will provide information useful to adapting and adopting hepatitis prevention strategies as part of your program. It is designed to build specific skills, increase knowledge regarding hepatitis risk-reduction & prevention counseling and also increase knowledge on the need for building effective linkages for vaccination and screening services. It will be provided by Yasir Shah, Adult Viral Hepatitis Prevention Coordinator, DC Department of Health.

We are located at 2501 Benning Rd, NE. We have our own parking lot which you are welcome to use. The X2 bus stops on our block.

Spaces are limited! If interested, please send an email to Mary Beth Levin (mlevin@preventionworksdc.org).

"In the tradition of Paris Is Burning, UHU co-sponsored an “I Love the 70’s” mini Ball with Carl Vogel Center and the Blair Underwood Clinic. The House Ball Community in DC is not only thriving but is also well populated with creative, kinetic GLBTQ men and women ages 18-30. The mini ball was held on Wednesday night of this week at the EFN Lounge. The event included fashion modeling, vogue-style dancing and a strong HIV prevention message."

Read more about this awesome event here.

(Photo credit: Larry Bryant, from the link above)

Second Wednesday of the Month

June 9^th,  6-8pm

PreventionWorks!
2501 Benning Rd NE


We will be putting together male condom safer sex kits and our new female condom safer sex kits. Come put together some kits and pee in a cup (for Chlamydia and gonorrhea), get your blood drawn (for syphilis), and/or get immunized for Hep A and B.

The following is a link to an article from the Times Live blog about lubricants used when having anal sex.

Risk of sexually transmitted disease three times higher when lubricant used with anal sex

This summer, Metro TeenAIDS is sponsoring its second series of adult sex ed classes, designed to help adults speak with youth about sexual health in a positive and supportive way.

The class focuses on incorporating topics of sexual health and positive decision-making into conversations across childhood and into adolescence. The goal is for sexual health to become a topic like careers, college planning, and general life goals — an on-going topic among family members that increase in detail and sophistication as youth mature.

For more information, contact Chrissy Balz. cbalz@metroteenaids.org

WASHINGTON, DC - Behavioral Assessment and Rapid HIV Testing Project (BART), is a three-year CDC funded project that is designed to conduct rapid HIV testing among high-risk populations within community settings. One of BART’s goals is to promote HIV testing as a means of increasing awareness of HIV status among underserved groups.

Every 9 1/2 minutes another person in the United States is infected with HIV- 56,000 every year. HIV remains a major threat to the nation’s health, and takes a particularly heavy toll on communities of color. But there’s something we can all do to help protect ourselves and our partners from this disease - get tested for HIV. Few things are more important in the fight against the HIV epidemic in black communities than HIV testing.

HIV poses a major threat to the health and well- being of MSM across the US;
• MSM account for nearly half of the more than one million people living with HIV in the U.S. (48%, or an estimated 532,000 total persons).
• MSM account for more than half of all new HIV infections in the U.S. each year (53%, or an estimated 28,700 infections).
• MSM is the only risk group in the U.S. in which new HIV infections are increasing. While new infections have declined among both heterosexuals and injection drug users, the annual number of new HIV infections among MSM has been steadily increasing since the early 1990s.

HIV exacts a devastating toll among MSM of color;
• The rate of new HIV infections for black men is about six times as high as the rate among white men, with the majority of new infections among black men (63%) occurring among men who have sex with men. (MSM).
• The rate of new HIV infections among Hispanic men is more than double that among white men, with most new infections among Hispanic men (72%) occurring among men who have sex with men
• A study of MSM in five U.S. cities found extremely high levels of infection among MSM, and many of those infected did not know it.
o Overall, one in four MSM participating in the study was infected. Black MSM were twice as likely to be infected with HIV than other MSM.
o Among all of those who were infected, about half were unaware of their HIV status. Results were particularly alarming for black MSM and young MSM, with more than two-thirds of infected black MSM, and nearly 80 percent of infected young MSM (aged 18-24), unaware that they were infected.
o In that same study of MSM in five U.S. cities, approximately 17 percent of Hispanic MSM were infected. Among those who were HIV-infected, nearly half (48%) were unaware that they were infected.

AIDS continues to claim the lives of too many MSM. Since the beginning of the epidemic, more than 274,000 MSM with AIDS have died.

Join US HELPING US PEOPLE INTO LIVING for FREE & CONFIDENTIAL HIV testing during the DC Black Pride.

If you would like more information about this event, please contact Angela Robinson at 678-595-7096, or email Angela at arcmedia7@yahoo.com.

Calvin Gerald, a member of the DC Center HIV Working Group, has been chosen to serve on the DC HIV Prevention Community Planning Group (CPG). Calvin will join current CPG member Dan O'Neill, chair of the HIV Working Group.

The HPCPG is the group that guides HIV prevention in the District of Columbia, along with the DC Department of Health's HIV/AIDS Administration (HAA).

Members of the HPCPG include residents of the District who are interested in HIV prevention, researchers and academics, healthcare providers, and staff from community-based organizations. CPG members reflect the diversity of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the District.

The HPCPG is responsible for determining which populations are in greatest need of HIV prevention services, as well as deciding what are the best ways to meet those needs. HAA, in turn, is responsible for implementing and funding programs and services that match the HPCPG’s recommendations.

Four other new members were approved to serve on the CPG. They are: Chris Bryant, Rev. Dana Tolliver, Sharmus Outlaw, and Pernell Williams.

The FUK!T/TOOLK!T safer sex campaign is featured in the current issue of The Advocate.

Dr. Frank Spinelli writes "I was to shocked to read the report out of Washington, D.C., suggesting that the number of AIDS cases there among African-American men is 12 times the national average and the rate of HIV infection is higher than in some parts of Western Africa. So you can imagine my pleasure when I first logged on to DCfukit.org, a community-based prevention program and website developed to stop the spread of HIV among D.C. men who have sex with men."

click here to continue reading this article on the Advocate.com website.

DCPCA Summary of this Washington Times Story: PreventionWorks! is a needle exchange program that focuses on preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS. It's been eight months since Congress lifted a decade-long ban prohibiting the District from using local tax dollars to support needle exchange programs. Critical funds are now starting to reach groups that run those programs, but it remains to be seen how effective they will be. Walter Smith, the executive director of the DC Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, monitors the District's efforts to reduce HIV infection.

There are multiple factors that produced our high HIV/AIDS rate, and it'll take multiple factors to bring it down, says Smith. The reasons include unstable leadership at DC's HIV/AIDS prevention office -- which had 12 directors in 20 years. The District has a high population of black and gay residents, who have high rates of infection. Intravenous drug use is the second most common way HIV is spread in DC, after unprotected sex, according to a HAA report released last year. DC needle exchange advocates say the ban left them without an important tool in a city where roughly 10,000 residents are thought to be injection-drug users.

PreventionWorks! had to scrape by mostly on private donations, but now the District increased the group's budget by $300,000 over three years. That's the largest share of nearly $700,000 the District is allocating annually for needle exchanges. Other organizations receiving help include those that work with specific high-risk groups, such as prostitutes and the homeless. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy argues the programs may actually increase disease-infection rates because they fail to curb risky behaviors associated with needle-sharing.

Labels: needle-exchange