Public Health Messaging Campaign Needed to Raise Awareness

There is a need for the public health community to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in the country. In D. C. , where 3 percent of the population has HIV and AIDS, the worst prevalence rate in the nation, easily surpassing the 1 percent rate of infection that makes up a severe epidemic, this need is even more magnified. Examples of some effective methods include advertising in different media sources, billboards, messages on buses, and in public areas. In San Francisco, the youth are getting answers from SexInfo, a public health text messaging service that was launched in 2006. The service has proven to be effective, receiving 4,500 sexual health inquiries in just its first 25 weeks of service, with broken condoms, pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases topping the subject list. The effort came after local health officials spotted rising rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia among black teens in one of the city's low-income neighborhoods, according to Deb Levine, MA, executive director and founder of Internet Sexuality Information Services Inc., which developed SexInfo in partnership with the San Francisco Department of Public Health. While the initial idea was to create a new Web site, both Levine and colleague Jacqueline McCright, MPH, a community-based STD services manager at the public health department, decided it was time to think outside the box. While visiting high schools for inspiration, the new idea walked right in front of their faces: After the school bell rang, students filed out with cell phones in hand. But they weren't talking -- they were typing.

"That's when we knew we were on to something," Levine told The Nation's Health.

Direct Link to Article on SexInfo: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/704350

Link to Related Articles:

Amid Criticism, D.C. Plans Big Effort to Spread Word on AIDS

http://www.fighthivindc.org/2009/06/amid-criticism-dc-plans-big-effort-to.html

Public Health & Education | U.S. Launches Five-Year, $45M Domestic HIV/AIDS Awareness Campaign
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/DAILY_REPORTS/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=57912

June 27th, National HIV Testing Day -A Look at D.C.

On Saturday, June 27^th National HIV Testing Day took place in D.C. with many sites for people to go and get tested. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s (AHF) Magic Johnson HIV Testing Caravan arrived in Washington, DC, after a successful, three-week, fourteen-city cross-country HIV testing tour that took the group through several hard-hit Southern US cities and states to raise awareness about the importance — and ease — of HIV testing. Throughout the tour, testing counselors on the caravan working in conjunction with respected local community partners, performed over 500 free, rapid HIV tests. The HIV testing caravan culminated with its arrival in Washington with two free HIV testing events set for Saturday, June 27^th, and Sunday, June 28^th. Free testing, which I participated in, took place at the Caribbean Festival from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday (Banneker Recreation Park, 2500 Georgia Avenue, NW) and on Saturday in the Washington Highlands neighborhood of Ward 8 (4226 4^th Street, SE, Washington DC 20032, cross street: Chesapeake) from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. to raise awareness about HIV testing, prevention and treatment through specific testing events and community outreach in

And throughout the course of the 4,220-mile, three-week cross-country HIV testing tour, HIV testing counselors and AHF staffers will supplied a steady stream of updates, videos and images via new media: YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter postings from along the route, interviews with local partners, government officials and, when appropriate and available, interviews with people who were tested on the mobile unit.

• http://www.youtube.com/aidshealth
• http://www.facebook/people/Aidshealth-Care/
• http://www.twitter.com/freehivtest
• http://www.myspace.com/aidshealth
• http://www.freehivtest.net/testingusa

Also, click the link below for HIV/AIDS Data through December 2006 Provided for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act of 2006, for Fiscal year 2008:

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/resources/reports/2009supp_vol14no1/default.htm

"National HIV Testing Day: An Epidemic in our Nation's Capitol": http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-blumenthal/national-hiv-testing-day_b_109717.html