David Ernesto Munar's blog

No matter the spin, CDC’s not-well-protected secret is all bad news.

As widely reported in the Washington Blade, the Washington Post, and other media outlets, the official estimate for annual HIV infections in the U.S. is being raised in 2008. Ironically, UNAIDS recently lowered its global estimate for people living with HIV/AIDS, from 40 million to 33 million.

Virtually every hallway conversation at the 2007 HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta—attended by 3,000 researchers, HIV prevention practitioners, public health officials, and AIDS advocates—buzzed with gossip and speculation about the unreleased figures and what the hold-up could mean.
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Thank you, CHAMP, for leading us in mobilzing for justice! I was honored to be asked to speak at the rally and share these remarks:

It is often said in Washington that you cannot solve a problem by just throwing money at it. Well, when it comes to HIV infections in America, we’ve actually NEVER TRIED!

In just two and half days—essentially the span of this conference—the U.S. government will have spent more money in Iraq than the total annual budget for domestic HIV prevention.

Since Sunday afternoon, the Treasury has spent about $576 million in Iraq. By lunchtime tomorrow, the cost to taxpayers will have exceeded $730 million and have surpassed the amount of money Congress and the president gave CDC for HIV prevention services in the U.S. in 2007.

Shamefully, the budget for HIV prevention in our country has not increased in ten years. Our prevention efforts are literally being starved to death.  read more »

In sharp contract to previous years, the pressroom at the 2007 National HIV Prevention Conference is virtually empty.

Gone are the rows of computer terminals, the banks of phones, the stacks of press releases. The copy machine stood jammed in a corner but hardly anyone noticed. A staffer, one of four, seemed relieved to discover the inoperable machine if only to break the morning monotony.

Media representatives, often outnumbers by staff, faced no waiting for one of two furnished laptops.

In prior years, numerous expert panels briefed three-dozen or more print and broadcast media representatives about the most salient news emerging from hundreds of scientific presentations delivered at the conference. A schedule of three to five press briefings was not uncommon for the four-day gathering.
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ATLANTA--Resolute in its decision to delay the release of alarming new HIV infection estimates, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) kicked off the National HIV Prevention Conference amid widespread anger and concern that the nation may be losing ground in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

With speculation mounting about the motives and content of CDC's unreleased data, official speeches of compassion and urgency received polite applause from the hundreds of assembled participants who seemed either unmoved or unconvinced.

Remarks from the openly HIV-positive co-chair of the HIV Advisory Committee for CDC and HRSA electrified an otherwise sedated opening plenary. Acknowledging a need to voice what might otherwise not be said, Jesse Milan Jr. told the audience the time had come for the U.S. to develop a national strategy against HIV/AIDS-something federal contracts require of developing nations that accept U.S. taxpayer money for AIDS relief.
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