Tuesday Congressional Briefing Relays Need for National AID...( WASHINGTON May 19 -- The followi...),Health

WASHINGTON, May 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being issued by AIDS Action:

WHAT: Congressional Briefing

"It's Time to End the Epidemic at Home: The Need for a National AIDS Strategy"

WHEN: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 -- 1-2 p.m. (Lunch provided at 12:45 p.m.)

WHERE: Rayburn Building, Room 2325

Honorary Congressional Cosponsors:

Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)

Representative Donna Christensen (D-VI)

Representative Eliot Engel (D-NY)

Representative Mike Honda (D-CA)

Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA)

Representative Janice Schakowsky (D- IL)

Representative Hilda Solis (D-CA)

Representative Edolphus Towns (D-NY)

Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA)

Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA)

Distinguished Panelists:

David Holtgrave, PhD, Johns Hopkins University

Mario Perez, Director, Office of AIDS Programs and Policy,

LA County Department of Public Health

Phill Wilson, Executive Director, The Black AIDS Institute

Kathie Hiers, CEO, AIDS Alabama

Terrell Halaska, Partner at HCM Strategists, former Assistant Secretary for DOE, and Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary Tommy Thompson

Marjorie Hill, PhD, CEO, Gay Men's Health Crisis

Moderator: Rebecca Haag, Executive Director, AIDS Action

WHY:

The United States, a leader in the international response to AIDS, is failing its own citizens in the response to the epidemic at home. More than 25 years since it was first identified, the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S. is characterized by needless mortality, inadequate access to care, persistent levels of new infection and stark racial inequalities.

Half of the more than 1 million people in America living with HIV/AIDS are not in medical care. More than 250,000 people don't know that they are infected. The percentage of new infections among women has tripled since 1985 to 27%, and AIDS is
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