Ending the Epidemic: Declaration to End AIDS in America

published on July 10, 2012

The momentum to bring an end to HIV is coalescing, we’re asking everyone to commit in writing to ending the epidemic. Will you sign the Declaration to END AIDS in America? A Blue Ribbon Panel will draft the treatise. The Declaration will crystallize our values and beliefs on how to take the science of Treatment as Prevention (TasP), High Impact Prevention (HIP), and Combination Prevention and make it work at a community level. It will challenge us to use the Affordable Care Act and the Ryan White Care Act to provide essential services for People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) so that our grandchildren will have an AIDS free generation. This oath provides an aspirational set of principles to guide our movement and the nation. It will put the leadership and the perspective of PLWHA upfront, and be committed to decreasing new HIV infections while highlighting the continued need for a vaccine and a cure.

The official signing of the Declaration will occur at this year’s Summit to End the HIV/AIDS Epidemic. The Summit will be September 29-30 in Las Vegas, just prior to the United States Conference on AIDS. The document will be open for everyone to sign and commit to ending the epidemic.

The declaration will not be a laundry list of needs, instead it will focus on four points:

Promote PLWHA leadership in efforts to increase health care engagement and treatment
Eliminate new HIV infections
Reduce stigma, discrimination, and social injustices which increase HIV vulnerability and health disparities
Maintain strong commitment to finding a vaccine and a cure

The Declaration requires money, in-kind donations, human resources and commitment. A successful outcome depends upon planning, cooperation and a vision to make it real. It will not happen overnight, but imagine when we are successful.

Dr. Julio Montaner will Chair the panel. Dr. Montaner is widely regarded as one of the fathers of TasP. His cutting edge work regarding advocacy and implementation of TasP has brought us to this moment in history. Now we must take the science and implement it at a community level.

Please click here or see below for full list of participants.

We can end this epidemic, but its going to take all of us—working together. If you want to have input into the Declaration, please contact Kali Lindsey klindsey@nmac.org. More information about the Summit To END HIV/AIDS in America will be released in August.

Yours in the struggle,

Paul Kawata, Executive Director, National Minority AIDS Council

BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

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Ending the Epidemic: Declaration to End AIDS in America

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