Last Tuesday I attended the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation panel discussion which took a long hard look at the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S. The panel, “AIDS at 30,” celebrated the progress of the 30-year HIV/AIDS battle, but also questioned how to end AIDS once and for all. While there’s no simple solution, the panel members explored how Americans can prevent the disease from taking more lives and shaving years off the lives of others.
Before the panel discussion, Jeff Crowley, Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, spoke about the government’s National HIV/AIDS Strategy’s (NHAS) current progress. Twenty-one million dollars has already been set aside for the NHAS and several departments are coordinating policies and operational plans to address the epidemic. This ambitious plan, only a year old, aims to:
- Reduce new infections
- Increase access to care
- Improve health outcomes for people with HIV
- Reduce HIV-related health disparities
… all by 2015.
Crowley did admit there’s much more to be done, and the biggest challenge is that people are not hearing about HIV/AIDS. The Kaiser Family Foundation and the Washington Post teamed up to better grasp the evolution of public opinion and perspectives on the disease, and research confirms this “decrease in hearing” about the topic.
Overall, there’s been a declining sense of national urgency regarding the issue. The number of Americans seeing HIV/AIDS as the most urgent health problem in the U.S. dropped from 68 percent in 1987 to just seven percent of Americans today, likely because of the advancements in HIV/AIDS.
But this is a different case in D.C. A Washington Post article, co-authored by the panel’s moderator, Darryl Fears, reports that about three percent of the District’s residents are afflicted. While three percent may not seem like much, the percentage merits the label “epidemic.”
So what’s the reasoning for the unusually high rate of HIV/AIDS in the District? Panel members Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick, Associate Professor of Medicine at Howard and Consultant and Senior Technical Advisory for the DC Department of Health, and Phill Wilson, President and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute, agreed one of the major barriers is the lack of communication and the misinformation surrounding HIV/AIDS.
The bottom line is that D.C. residents and people across America are still contracting and spreading the disease because people aren’t talking about it. According to the Foundation’s research:
- 60% of D.C. residents never or rarely discuss HIV/AIDS with friends and family
- 74% of white residents never or rarely discuss the issue
- 51% of black residents rarely or never broached the subject
The panel suggested that the stigma, the stereotypes about AIDS and the lack of stability in family units are just a few reasons people don’t talk about it. The Greater than AIDS movement is hoping to change this and stir dialogue surrounding HIV/AIDS and testing. According to Jon Cohen, Director of Polling at the Washington Post, there are higher HIV-testing rates where they’ve launched HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns.
As communicators, we know that awareness is the first step in opening the doors of communication. As panel member Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick said: “No one has to get the diagnosis of AIDS.”
What do you think communicators and others can do to help solve the problem in D.C., as well as across the U.S.? Do you think the Greater than AIDS campaign method is effective?