Can America Regain 'Momentum' in Fight Against AIDS?

Name: Amy

Posting: #1

Topic: Health

Title: Can America Regain 'Momentum' in Fight Against AIDS?

Writer: Phil Gast

Publication Name: CNN

Date of Publication: 09/25/10

Length: 707 words

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/09/25/hiv.studies.awareness/index.html

The awareness of HIV/AIDS concerns have prodigiously decreased within the past couple years and recent studies show that 1 in 5 gay men have HIV; of the 1 in 5 men, most of them do not even know that they are diagnosed with the disease. Federal officials seek to re-enforce the concern for AIDS and regain "momentum" in the fight against it. The secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, shared at the U.S. Conference on AIDS that she sees a potential rise in the momentum if government and medical professionals work better together. "[America] will regain the momentum we have lost," Sebelius said. The reason why those who are aware want to spread the caution is due to the fact that the diagnosis of AIDS has tremendously increased within 30 years. The director of the CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, Kevin Fenton shares his thoughts on the epidemic. "Although it has been nearly 30 years since the first reported cases of HIV among gay and bisexual men, HIV remains a crisis that is far from over in this community," Fenton said. The percentage of those who have heard of the awareness has dropped from a 70 percent in 2004 to 45 percent in 2009 in the United States.

Overall, many organizations and public authorities are seeking to raise the awareness of the diagnosis of HIV/AIDS. The decrease in awareness shows in the statistics of surveys that have been going around in the past couple years. For the most part, gay men have proven to be those diagnosed more often, thus raising the awareness to spread the news of the epidemic.