September 24, 2008

NAPWA Testifies Before Congress

On September 16, Frank J. Oldham Jr., president and CEO of the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA), spoke before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on the state of HIV/AIDS in America.

Watch the complete committee hearing:




Committee Chairman Waxman, Ranking Member Davis, Congresswoman Holmes-Norton, Congressman Van Hollen and the entire Oversight Committee thank you for your demonstrated leadership and the opportunity to speak with you about the state of HIV prevention in the United States of America.

As the trusted and representative voice of the greater than 1 million persons living with HIV/AIDS in America, I say with great confidence that we know our status and that has enabled us to save lives. HIV continues to disproportionately affect gay and bisexual men, women and men of color, and individuals challenged by poverty, incarceration and mental illness. It is NAPWA’s belief as well as many in the AIDS community that HIV is exacerbated by social marginalization with effects that manifest in individual health challenges.

For this reason, from our view HIV prevention can only succeed through access to and dissemination of evidence-based information and education; protected and voluntary HIV testing and screening services; expanded access to health care, treatment and support services; and efforts to reduce stigma and increased support for sero-status disclosure, as well as by addressing structural, systemic and economic barriers that continue to perpetuate HIV vulnerability among the most marginalized groups of Americans.

This is the basis of support for our communities’ call for a National AIDS Strategy that is coordinated, evidence-based, outcome-driven and inclusive of people living with HIV/AIDS. The principles of the National AIDS strategy, as well as the more than 300 organizations and 1,000 individuals that have endorsed it, can be found online at www.nationalaidsstrategy.org. As we are in the midst of an election year, it is critical to those living with and concerned about HIV/AIDS in this country that those who are in or seeking political office once again prioritize HIV/AIDS through their support of the establishment and implementation of a National AIDS Strategy. It is critical to our success that people living with HIV/AIDS be invited meaningfully and equally to share their lived experiences toward informing the development and implementation of a National AIDS Strategy.

Evidence-based Information & Education

With the benefit of new technologies to identify when HIV was acquired, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its annual HIV incidence estimate reporting that HIV infections have been as much as 40 percent higher for the past 15 years. This information does not indicate that HIV prevention doesn’t work, but that it is not reaching the amount of people that it needs to. Dr. David Holtgrave of Johns Hopkins University and Julie Scofield of the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD) in the Baltimore Sun, August 31, 2008, articulated the community consensus that we must scale up HIV prevention in this country to an annual investment of $1.3 billion—this commitment will bring resources closer to pace with prevention and surveillance need and efforts. We understand that increasing prevention resources to meet need will not happen immediately. NAPWA, in coalition with the AIDS community, urges that prevention appropriations to the Centers for Disease Control and prevention be increased by $200 million in FY [Fiscal Year] 2009 to respond specifically to domestic resource needs.

Over the past eight years, we’ve seen an emphasis on prevention interventions that are not science-based. The administration has pushed abstinence-only-until-marriage education and refused to remove the ban on federal funding for syringe exchange programs. These kinds of short-sighted policies have real consequences for people’s lives. Max Siegel, now employed by AIDS Alliance for Women, Youth and Families, was inadequately prepared to make informed decisions about his own sexual health as a result of ideologically based abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. Max Siegel is now HIV positive and sharing his experience to address the unintended consequences of failing to provide comprehensive sex education. At the same time the Centers for Disease Control also released information articulating that while HIV infections resulting from heterosexual contact decreased slightly, young women revealed increased susceptibility to sexually transmitted diseases and higher numbers of early pregnancy—indicators of HIV risk.

Human sexuality is a right! Evidence proves that risk reduction strategies reduce HIV infections. It is imperative that we don’t sacrifice lives and waste already constrained resources by employing programs that have been proven to be ineffective.

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