June 27 is National HIV Testing Day
Be Greater Than AIDS: Get Yourself Tested Week Begins
Panel Advises No Change in Restrictions on Gay Blood Donors
Myriad Pharmaceuticals Announces Suspension of HIV Drug Development
National AIDS Fund Expands AmeriCorps Program
June 27 is National HIV Testing Day
For the 15th year, on June 27 AIDS service organizations and public health departments across the country will conduct events in their communities to promote HIV testing and early diagnosis. The National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA) started National HIV Testing Day (NHTD) in 1995.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 250,000 of the one million people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States are unaware of their status. Though access to treatment through AIDS Drug Assistance Programs may be limited by the current economic crisis in many states, early diagnosis can still help stop the spread of the virus by enabling people to know their status and be informed about protecting themselves and their partners.
In Chicago, TPAN offers free HIV testing and counseling daily, and results can be obtained in around 20 minutes. The hours of operation are:
Monday and Thursday: 2–8 pm
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: 10 am–4 pm
No appointment is necessary, but call first if you want to be tested outside of regular testing hours.
To find a testing site in your area, use the search box at www.hivtest.org
Be Greater Than AIDS: Get Yourself Tested Week Begins
The first Be Greater Than AIDS: Get Yourself Tested Week will kick off on June 19th, calling on Americans to get tested for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the week leading up to National HIV Testing Day (June 27th). The campaign will spotlight 10 cities—Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, New York, and Washington D.C.—where free testing is available and other special events are taking place.
The special week-long promotion brings together GYT: Get Yourself Tested, a year-round campaign spearheaded by MTV, the Kaiser Family Foundation, the CDC and Planned Parenthood to increase testing for STDs, including HIV, among young people, and Greater Than AIDS, a national movement launched last year by Kaiser and the Black AIDS Institute to respond to the domestic AIDS crisis, especially the disproportionate epidemic in African American communities. Gilead Sciences, Inc. provided financial resources to support the promotion.
“Testing is about community. We will never get the HIV epidemic under control until everyone understands that we are all in this together,” said Frank Oldham, Jr., President and CEO of the National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA). “Getting tested should be part of every American’s routine health care, from adolescence through senior years, and no one should be stopped from getting tested by fear or shame.”
Some of the featured events of Be Greater than AIDS: Get Yourself Tested Week include:
- Free HIV Testing and Events in 10 Cities: Young people can log on to www.GYTNOW.org to find locations offering free HIV testing during the week. Select Walgreens stores in Chicago will also offer free HIV testing on June 25th and will support the effort with in-store promotions. For more information about locations and times, visit: www.GYTnow.org
- Clear Channel Radio will debut on June 19 "I Am Greater Than AIDS," a half hour special radio show hosted by renowned entertainer, author, and radio personality Steve Harvey.
- New Mobile App: MTV will unveil a new iPhone application based on Pos or Not, an interactive game initially launched online that challenges stereotypes and breaks down the barriers that may prevent people from talking openly about HIV/AIDS, getting tested, and using protection. People nationwide, half of whom are living with HIV and half who are not, share parts of their lives for “Pos or Not” by divulging their HIV status. Players confront their own HIV stereotypes as they guess whether a profiled participant is positive or negative based only on a photo and a few personal details. To date, the game has been played 10.1 million times online.
- Targeted Online Resources: A customized web page at www.GYTNOW.org provides information about free testing and events in each city as well as other informational and community resources. Beyond the 10 cities, users can use the site’s testing location finder to identify local resources anywhere in the country by simply entering a zip code.
For more information about Be Greater Than AIDS: Get Yourself Tested Week, visit www.GYTNOW.org.
Panel Advises No Change in Restrictions on Gay Blood Donors
On June 11, a federal advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted in a 9–6 decision to recommend no change in the ban against blood donations from men who have sex with men (MSM).
The FDA's current policy states that “men who have had sex with another man at any time since 1977 are currently deferred as blood donors.” Testimony at the advisory panel hearing pointed out that the agency’s policy was inconsistent, as heterosexual men and women who have had sex with someone with HIV are deferred from donating blood for only one year.
Representatives from the AIDS Institute, the Foundation for AIDS Research, and the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) called for a change in the policy, including limiting the ban against donations from men who have sex with men to one year after the last homosexual experience.
Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, urging a lifting of the ban said, “This is a discussion with real social significance for gay men. Today, this lingering policy carries with it a social stigma for this population that is still engaged in battles for civil rights on a whole array of fronts.”
Panel members made a series of recommendations that call for screening of blood donors based on individual behavior rather than characteristics of a larger group. They said the goal is to increase blood safety and reduce the discriminatory aspects of blood donation policy.
Myriad Pharmaceuticals Announces Suspension of HIV Drug Development
On June 8, Myriad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. issued a press release announcing “several strategic initiatives to focus the company's efforts on its oncology pipeline and to conserve its financial resources to extend the company's projected cash runway beyond 2013.”
Included in these initiatives is “the suspension of its HIV maturation program for strategic, business reasons; and a reduction in workforce.”
Adrian Hobden, PhD, CEO of Myriad Pharmaceuticals, said, "Both MPC-4326 and the novel, pre-clinical maturation inhibitor, MPI-0461359, have demonstrated promising safety and efficacy profiles. However, we have decided to suspend further development of these HIV compounds and will seek to partner these compounds as we apply our human and financial resources to our cancer programs."
National AIDS Fund Expands AmeriCorps Program
In a press release issued on June 14, the National AIDS Fund (NAF) announced that its 15-year-old AmeriCorps program, a public-private partnership with the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the MetLife Foundation, and Roche, will add Louisiana to its roster of AmeriCorps sites for the 2010–2011 service year. Increased support from CNCS enables Louisiana to become an NAF AmeriCorps site. The number of CNCS-supported NAF AmeriCorps members will increase from 49 to 54.
“Thanks to the increased support of CNCS for this important public-private partnership, we can continue to cultivate the next generation of HIV/AIDS leaders in our established AmeriCorps sites, while expanding our program to another site in the U.S. Southern region, where the impact of HIV/AIDS continues to increase,” said NAF President and CEO Kandy Ferree.
The NAF AmeriCorps program was one of the very first AmeriCorps programs, and the first to focus exclusively on HIV/AIDS. According to the release, “To date, more than 550 NAF AmeriCorps members have provided HIV testing, prevention, and quality of life services to tens of thousands of individuals and families. Recruitment for the
2010–2011 service year of the NAF AmeriCorps program is at an all-time high, with more than 1,000 applications received for the 54 available positions.”
According to a study recently commissioned by the NAF, 84% of AmeriCorps alumni continue to volunteer in many ways—58% of those participate in HIV/AIDS-specific activities and 85% participate in health care and social justice causes. In addition, the experience of the program influenced alumni in terms of their current jobs, most of which are in HIV/AIDS, public health, and health care.
Check it out at www.safepositive.com.