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Targeting the Invisible Epidemic: National Groups Establish Women and HIV/AIDS Coalition

Posted on: Wednesday, 8 March 2006, 09:01 CST

NEW YORK, March 8 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Today, a group of national and regional organizations announced the formation of the Women and HIV/AIDS Coalition (WHAC) in recognition of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day which occurs this Friday. The percentage of women diagnosed with AIDS in the U.S. has more than tripled since 1985. Girls now make up 57 percent of people aged 13 to 19 with new HIV infections. African-American women are 23 times more likely than white women to have AIDS, and AIDS remains the leading cause of death for African-American women between age 25 and 34. WHAC was formed to combat an epidemic that remains invisible in spite of these disturbing statistics.

WHAC, whose membership includes HIV/AIDS, women's health, family planning, reproductive health, anti-violence and human rights organizations, will work to raise awareness and advocacy around a worsening segment of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S. and globally. Facilitated by amfAR, and initially co- chaired by Dr. Judy Auerbach of amfAR and Dawn Averitt Bridge of The Well Project, the Coalition will employ a broad range of educational and legislative activities including symposia and workshops, Congressional briefings, meetings with elected officials, and promoting a legislative agenda that directly addresses women's healthcare and HIV/AIDS.

"We cannot ignore the overwhelming growth in HIV/AIDS cases among women in the U.S. and around the world that has characterized the last several years of this epidemic," said Dr. Auerbach, vice president, Public Policy and Program Development at amfAR. "Public and private efforts must be expanded to educate all women about HIV/ AIDS and to ensure appropriate prevention, care, treatment, and support services are available to HIV-positive and HIV-negative women alike."

Among the Coalition's chief goals are preventing HIV infection in the most vulnerable populations, promoting investment in research for new HIV prevention options, ensuring access to evidence-based HIV prevention information, and creating a national environment where women and girls have equal access to HIV diagnosis, care and treatment.

The WHAC Steering Committee is currently composed of:

-- amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research

-- The Well Project

-- AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth, and Families

-- AIDS Treatment Activist Coalition

-- Alliance for Microbicide Research

-- Black AIDS Institute

-- Center for Health and Gender Equity

-- Community Education Group

-- CHAMP (Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project)

-- Gay Men's Health Crisis

-- Global Campaign for Microbicides

-- Global Health Council

-- Guttmacher Institute

-- International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS

-- International Women's Health Coalition

-- National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association

-- National Minority AIDS Council

-- Reproductive Health Technologies Project

-- UNAIDS Global Coalition on Women and AIDS

-- WORLD (Women Organized to Respond to Life-Threatening Diseases)

"Women can not afford to be silent in the national conversation about HIV and AIDS," said Dawn Averitt Bridge, founder and chief executive officer of the Well Project. "When I was first diagnosed, the stigma associated with HIV was deadly. Isolation keeps many women from disclosing their status, from understanding the risks of other infections, and most tragically, from seeking healthcare. Women are now mobilizing as never before to end the epidemic."

http://www.usnewswire.com

Source: U.S. Newswire

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