HIV prevention

Join Center on Halsted for an engaging morning of free, educational
presentations on HIV/AIDS. Interested members of the community
as well as HIV/AIDS service providers are invited to this National
HIV Testing Day Seminar which will explore aspects of living
with HIV infection – from understanding laboratory testing to other
conditions that can complicate HIV treatment.     

Mapping Pathways helps to develop and nurture communities in understanding around the adoption of antiretroviral-based prevention strategies to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It provides data and reccomendations to policymakers, leaders and activists all around the communities.

The seX Factor: A Dialogue on HIV Prevention-was held on February 9th at the ChicagoState University. The dialogue was in reconginition of the 25th National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. The keynote speakers, along with the discussion panels focused on young, gay, bisexual, African American Men. The event was hosted as a webcast viewing party, click here to see it all!

The AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) regularly surveys candidates on HIV/AIDS-related policies and publishes the results to educate voters and the general public. This year, AFC mailed a request for candidate statements on HIV/AIDS to all 28 candidates running on November 2 for the offices of Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer, and United States Senator.

HIV advocates breathed a sigh of relief on October 13 when Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley released a 2011 city budget plan that preserves HIV funding and largely maintains city support for the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH).

The 2011 budget is the last one that Mayor Daley will present.  He announced earlier this year that he would step down after running the city for 21 years.  

CHICAGO – Rejecting funding that mandates abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education, Gov. Pat Quinn (D) instead secured $8.1 million under a new federal program for comprehensive sex education for schools and community programs. The U.S. Dept.

On this, National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, AIDS Foundation of Chicago calls for more frequent HIV testing among gay men and a re-doubling of efforts to combat the epidemic among this most-impacted population.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on September 23 that approximately one in five gay men in 21 American cities are HIV-positive, and 44% were unaware of their status. Chicago released its data from this study in July 2009 and found that a little more than 17% of gay men surveyed were found to be HIV-positive.

For the past 12 years, shortly after Mother's Day, scientists and AIDS activists have commemorated HIV Vaccine Awareness Day. It is likely perceived as an obscure observance by most Americans, but one that deserves our attention given this sobering reality: Twenty-eight years after the discovery of HIV, we still have no effective vaccine.

By Joyce C. Tang via The Daily Beast

The first version of the female condom made a weird noise, fell out, and was expensive, too. Now public health experts are pushing a new and improved version in American cities. Can it overcome stigma?

Until recently, Leslie Evans, a case manager at Vital Bridges, a nonprofit HIV/AIDS outreach program in Chicago, had never heard of the female condom. "I couldn't even picture one until I saw it," she says. Evans wondered how the female condom worked, who would want to use one, and whether the rings on each end would be uncomfortable. Though her job was to encourage safe sex to her clients, "I never really promoted it," Evans says of the female condom. "Just condoms, condoms, condoms"—and by condoms she means the male version.

Today, 66 organizations and over 400 individuals called on Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to fairly fund HIV services in the FY 11 state budget, to be introduced March 10.