CDC has announced its upcoming announcement of new incidence numbers that will show that rates of HIV in the United States are higher than previously estimated. Their "Dear Colleague" letter is below:  read more »

Today the New York Times published a batch of letters responding to their editorial on rising HIV rates in young gay men. Since they didn't publish CHAMP's letter, I thought i'd do it here (This is why we love the Internet!)

The January 14th editorial, “HIV Rises in Young Gay Men,” spent a lot of energy blaming 19-year olds, and ignored core issues that hamper effective prevention efforts.

A recent Journal of Adolescent Health study counted youth homelessness as a major factor in HIV risk. The New York City Council commissioned a 2007 report showing that one-third of all homeless youth in NYC were gay.

Congress continues to bankroll abstinence-only education programs in spite of the proven increase risk behavior they cause. Though the HIV epidemic grows worse in black and Latino communities, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) budget has remained stagnant for a decade.

We still have no national HIV prevention plan, 27 years into the epidemic.

Young gay men are not to blame for the profound failure of government to provide comprehensive HIV prevention—nor for the media’s continued ignorance of the root causes of HIV.
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Want the good news or bad news first?

I'll give you the bad news.

Sex columnist Dan Savage whose syndicated column Savage Love is read weekly by millions in alternative weeklies around the country, wrote a blog entry for the Seattle news site The Stranger about the NYT story on rising HIV infections among young MSMs. His blog post was his usual snarky self, but horribly misinformed. He writes:

" so long as gay health educators refuse to level with gay men--there's no "moderating" your meth use; you can suck too much cock; anal sex isn't a first-date activity and having anal sex with hordes of anonymous partners, even with condoms, is sure-fire way of contracting HIV--these new campaigns won't have much of an impact. And so we'll be reading this story again in a couple of years, yet another story about HIV infection that makes tragic heroes of guys like Javier Arriola and goes on to suggest that straight talk about HIV infection is part of the problem, not part of the solution."  read more »

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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Showing the “missing pieces” of HIV prevention puzzle in the United States, more than three hundred people poured into the downtown Atlanta streets for the PJM Unity Rally and March in Atlanta, GA, on Tuesday, December 4th, where the National HIV Prevention Conference (NHPC) ended on Wednesday. People from across different communities marched to demonstrate unity for a comprehensive HIV prevention in the US, not to be divided by community or issue.

In order to draw conference attendees from the hotel to the opening rally two blocks away at Hardy Ivy Park, a group of carolers sang an HIV prevention song to the tune of “The 12 Days of Christmas.” Other PJM folks were in the lobby, decorating marchers with the PJM sash—a white satin cloth with the red PJM Unity logo. Helping to sash people in the hotel was Miss Rhode Island 2007 Ashley Bickford, who was attending the conference as someone interested in HIV/AIDS issues.

The spirited marchers burst from the Hyatt onto Peachtree Street, blowing whistles and chanting, and made their way to Hardy Ivy Park to meet the crowd already assembled. The March MC Waheedah Shabbazz-el took the bullhorn and hyped the crowd to a frenzy, reminding the crowd, “HIV is more than a disease, It’s positive proof of injustice!” The marchers grabbed signs and flashlights from organizers and marshals, and the rally was in full swing.  read more »