"We need a plan, not a patchwork," said Julie Davids, Executive Director of Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP). "We need to move from a response to AIDS that is often bureaucratic to one that is evidence-based and outcomes-oriented; a response that reaches everyone at risk of infection or needing care."
The Call to Action statement states that to be successful a national AIDS strategy should:
-- Improve prevention and treatment outcomes through reliance on evidence-
based programming
-- Set ambitious and credible prevention and treatment targets and require
annual reporting on progress towards goals
-- Identify clear priorities for action across federal agencies and assign
responsibilities and timelines for follow-through
-- Include, as a primary focus, the prevention and treatment needs of
African Americans, other communities of color, gay men of all races,
and other groups at elevated risk
-- Address social factors that increase vulnerability to infection
-- Promote a strengthened HIV prevention and treatment research effort
-- Involve many sectors in developing the national strategy: government,
business, community, civil rights organizations, faith based groups,
researchers, and people living with HIV/AIDS
Mark Cloutier, the Executive Director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation notes the "enormous human and economic costs resulting from the lack of a focused response to HIV/AIDS domestically. Without action there will be more unnecessary deaths, billions of dollars in increased health care expenses and a significant loss of productivity in our economy. A more effective national response to HIV/AIDS is a critical part of building a stronger and more responsive health care system for all Americans."
Pernessa Seel
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