Alison Yager's blog

This year, the theme of World AIDS Day is "Getting to Zero: Zero New HIV Infections. Zero Discrimination and Zero AIDS Related Deaths." In order to get to zero, we must be clear that now is not the time to cut back on essential services, even in the face of fiscal austerity.

Earlier this week, New York City announced that all public middle and high schools must provide a semester of sex education in 6th or 7th grade, and again in 9th or 10th grade. HIV-positive women worked for several years to make this happen.

HIV testing represents one of the most potent weapons in the fight against HIV. Yet too many individuals who may be at risk of infection continue to avoid testing. This reluctance to test is driven in part by the pervasiveness of HIV stigma.

The findings of a study released last Thursday by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) suggest major policy implications for the fight against HIV and AIDS, indicating that United States legislators and pharmaceutical companies should ensure universal access to HIV care and treatment now.

Black Americans are at the intersection of high rates of HIV and high rates of poverty.  As a result, cuts to services are acutely felt by Black Americans living with HIV/AIDS.

June 27 is National HIV Testing Day. This year, HIV Law Project and many of our allies are focused on making HIV testing routine, and toward this end to ensure health care providers are reimbursed by insurers for it.