2009 Flu and HIV

by Miguel Gomez

Our nation confronts a serious public health challenge, the 2009 flu outbreak (commonly referred to as “swine flu”). To learn more about the potential impact of this new outbreak on the HIV community we reached out to Richard Wolitski from the CDC and to local HIV care providers across the country.

We still have a lot to learn about this new flu. However, as we noted in our last post, all types of influenza may be dangerous for individuals with compromised, or weakened, immune systems—and that includes many people living with HIV.

Responding Rapidly to Public Health Emergencies Using New Media: Swine Flu

By Jennie Anderson

As many of you know, this week, HHS declared swine flu to be a national public health emergency. At AIDS.gov we're particularly concerned about this issue because people with compromised immune systems, including those living with HIV/AIDS, are more likely to become ill from diseases like the flu.

New media tools can help support our efforts to deliver public health messages quickly and broadly. We are using those tools to spread the word about the swine flu outbreak and to support the public health community's response to it. We ask you to join us in this important mission.

Ready to Share: NAPWA Embraces New Media

By Miguel Gomez

Earlier this week, Michelle Samplin-Salgado and I gave a workshop on using new media in response to HIV/AIDS at the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA) annual Skills Building Institute for HIV Testing and Awareness Day Events and Campaigns. The Institute is part of NAPWA's “Mobilized to Succeed” initiative.

It was an honor to be with NAPWA, and with our colleagues from POZ Magazine , to learn alongside people who are living with HIV/AIDS and the organizations that advocate for them. There is no better voice in the response to AIDS than those who are living with HIV/AIDS themselves.

For me, our goal at AIDS.gov is to embrace, when appropriate, the use of new media in response to HIV. NAPWA offered an amazing opportunity to explore the basics of new media, and Michelle and I shared our experiences using new media tools like blogs, wikis, and Twitter. Sally Cherry from The Black Educational AIDS Project signed up for Twitter during the presentation and sent her first few tweets. From the looks of it, she's off to a good start! Other participants (including a couple of people who have been living with AIDS for nearly 20 years) were eager to begin sharing their stories through blogging.

Open for Suggestions: Help us name this year's National HIV Testing Day Project!

By Miguel Gomez

One out of five - that's the latest CDC estimate of how many people living with HIV in the U.S. are unaware of their HIV status.

People who know their HIV status are more likely to take action to improve their health and well-being. So HIV testing is essential––yet, for many people, the stigma around HIV remains a barrier to taking the test.

June 27th is National HIV Testing Day—a day when we challenge the stigma and encourage people to learn their HIV status. This year, like every year, National HIV Testing Day is about YOU. Your stories. Your experiences. Your health and well-being. We're developing a campaign to hear real stories from people just like you who have taken an HIV test.

BUT FIRST WE NEED A NAME. Because new media is about engaging our communities in the process, I'm inviting YOU to help us name the campaign.

Using New Media to Act Against AIDS

Every 9½ minutes someone in the U.S. is infected with HIV. That’s the message behind a national campaign that was announced today by officials from the White House, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the CDC.

Act Against AIDS is a new five-year national communication campaign that will highlight this alarming statistic and attempt to combat complacency about the HIV/AIDS crisis in the United States. The campaign is using both traditional channels (e.g., radio and transit ads) and new media tools (e.g., widgets, Web badges, online videos, Twitter, blogs, social networking sites) to reach a broad audience and to target at-risk populations.