White House Hosts Senior Officials to Discuss the Domestic Response to HIV/AIDS

By Miguel Gomez

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and Ambassador Eric P. Goosby, MD, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator

I just came back from an event at the White House, where Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that the 2012 International AIDS Conference will be held in Washington DC. This decision by the International AIDS Society comes as a result of President Obama's announcement that the U.S. will end its entry restrictions on people living with HIV. The conference was last held in the U.S. in 1990 in San Francisco, California.

Watch the video of the event:

On the eve of World AIDS Day, Secretary Clinton reminded us that "HIVAIDS is the defining health challenge of our time." Ambassador Eric Goosby, MD, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, told us that we have to "work harder and smarter." And as Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius told the audience, "if our results aren't changing, our actions must."

World AIDS Day Federal Conference Call: Voices of Senior Leaders, Staff, and Grantees

By Miguel Gomez

Last week we sponsored a World AIDS Day conference call for Federal staff and grantees who work on HIV/AIDS issues. Speakers on the call included senior HIV leaders from the White House and the Departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, State, and Veterans Affairs. Approximately 900 sites worldwide (representing well over 1,000 listeners) took part in the call. Today I want to share some highlights from the call along with information about how we integrated more traditional and new media into the planning, promotion, evaluation, and product development from the call.

What were the key messages from the call?

Dr. Howard Koh, HHS Assistant Secretary for Health

Dr. Koh also noted several recent accomplishments, among them the revitalization of the President’s Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS (PACHA), the reauthorization of the Ryan White Program, and the elimination of the entry ban for HIV positive travelers and immigrants.

Dr. Howard Koh, HHS Assistant Secretary for Health, started the call by saying "this is an opportunity for all of us to hear an update on the HIV/AIDS epidemic both in the U.S. and globally, and for us to engage in a dialogue about the challenges we face as we work together to respond to HIV/AIDS." He noted that the theme for this year’s World AIDS Day is “Working Together” and said, “we are working together particularly in this new administration both domestically and internationally to share best practices and to improve the lives and health of those we serve.”

Obesity Among People Living with HIV

In the U.S., as we move into the holiday season there is often increased reporting on obesity. AIDS.gov asked Dr. Nancy F. Crum-Cianflone, a Research Physician with the Naval Medical Center San Diego, to provide us information on her new study of obesity in HIV-infected persons. Research has shown, HIV-infected persons are now are increasingly overweight or obese. Below is what she told us.

Facing AIDS for World AIDS Day Flickr FAQs

By Michelle Samplin-Salgado

As we mentioned in last week's post, we've created a Flickr group for you to upload your Facing AIDS for World AIDS Day photos. There are already hundreds of photos from the United States Conference on AIDS — we hope you'll help us add hundreds (thousands?!) more!

www.flickr.com

This is a Flickr badge showing public photos and videos from AIDSgov. Make your own badge here.

We've been talking with some of our colleagues and realize while it is very popular, not everyone is familiar with Flickr, so we've written this post to give you a little more background.

Flickr is an online photo-sharing community that allows anyone to organize and share their digital photos with friends, family, colleagues, and the rest of the world. The HIV community has embraced Flickr as a way to share photos from events, promote photo contests, and yes, Face AIDS. AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts' Flickr photostream has over 3,000 photos. And many organizations, like the Global Health Council and YouthForce have used Flickr for photo contests. We spoke to Michael Barron, Director of AIDS LifeCycle , about how Flickr has helped to promote their annual AIDS ride by asking participants to post photos from the event. He told us, “Our dedicated cyclists and volunteer 'roadies' share photos with the donors who rallied to send them on the road to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS all over California and beyond.”

Facing AIDS for World AIDS Day 2009: How You Can Take Action with One Photo

By Jennie Anderson and Josie Halpern-Finnerty

Tree Alexander at USCA

If a picture says a thousand words, how much would a picture of you wearing a red ribbon and holding a sign that says you're "Facing AIDS for World AIDS Day" say? Could it help end stigma? Promote HIV testing? We think so - and we need your help.

Last week at the U.S. Conference on AIDS, we kicked off the relaunch of our Facing AIDS for World AIDS Day campaign. Hundreds of you stopped by our photo booth and told us why you are Facing AIDS. In doing so, you are helping to reduce stigma around HIV by putting real faces to the people who care about responding to HIV, and by helping to promote HIV testing. We first launched this campaign last year for the 20th World AIDS Day and given how many of you responded, we're doing it again this year and taking it to the next level.