What Did You Miss?
Thousands of attendees from around the country are in Atlanta, Georgia this week to attend the 2015 National HIV Prevention Conference. For those who are not able to attend, check out daily conference highlights:
Sunday, December 6th
The opening plenary of CDC’s National HIV Prevention Conference (NHPC) drew over 3,000 scientists, community members, public health workers, clinicians, and people living with HIV to hear the latest policy, scientific, program, and community approaches to addressing the HIV epidemic in the U.S.
Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, opened the session by noting recent major successes in HIV prevention. But he also outlined the significant challenges the nation faces in expanding those successes to all communities by emphasizing that “the growing disparities among communities of color and gay men show that HIV has always been not only just a virus, but an injustice.”
Douglas Brooks, the Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, framed his comments about the National HIV/AIDS Strategy: Updated to 2020 by noting that the conference opened on the first day of Hanukkah and the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. He drew a connection between the themes of light, freedom, and miracles in those events and the nation’s work to end the HIV epidemic.
Brooks gave an overview of the recent update to the Strategy, and spoke briefly about the release of the new Federal Action Plan [PDF] and Community Action Framework, which are designed to support efforts to achieve the Strategy’s goals. He expressed hope that the latter would spur conversations and partnerships among community stakeholders and thanked them for their tenacity and leadership in the face of many challenges. He ended his presentation with an exhortation from a famous explorer: “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!”