HIV ribbonRead further about impact
of HIV/AIDS on our world

In "Pursuing the Dream: AIDSfreeAFRICA" Westchester resident Dr. Rolande Hodel joins Future Choices in April 2010 to recount her journey to launch a new industry in sub-Saharan Africa: the first African-owned and -operated prescription drug production facilities. Determined to do something truly significant with her newly earned PhD in chemistry, she established an NGO called AIDSfreeAFRICA, and set off for Africa to figure out how "to empower Africans to be come self-sufficient in producing pharmaceuticals." Dr. Hodel's narrative of the amazing achievements of this fledgling enterprise offers a possible blueprint for real development in impoverished countries.

Go HERE to view video of "Pursuing the Dream: AIDSfreeAFRICA."

Less than a year after CDC announced the U.S. HIV epidemic is much larger than previously thought, public’s sense of urgency is down, even among some higher risk groups

Sense of Personal Risk Falls for Young Adults, Testing Rates are Stagnant

Amidst Call for Stepped Up Focus on Domestic HIV/AIDS, There is Public Support for More Spending and the Public Believes Greater Efforts on Prevention Will Make a Difference

Less than a year after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recalculated the size of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and announced that there were 40 percent more new HIV infections each year than previously believed, a new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that Americans’ sense of urgency about HIV/AIDS as a national health problem has fallen dramatically and their concern about HIV as a personal risk has also declined, even among some groups at higher risk. |MORE

Get Yourself Tested (GYT)

Pedro -- GYT kicked off April 1, 2009 during the world television premiere of Pedro, a movie based on the remarkable life of "The Real World’s" Pedro Zamora. Told through the eyes of his friends and family -- and written by Dustin Lance Black, the Academy Award-winning writer of Milk -- Pedro celebrates the extraordinary life a young man who found out he was HIV positive at 17, then made the courageous decision to dedicate his life to speaking out about and fighting the spread of the disease.

Encore performances of Pedro on MTV are scheduled for

  • April 2nd at 9am ET/PT and at 4pm ET/PT, April 3rd at 2pm ET/PT, and
  • April 5th at 8am ET/PT on MTV and
  • on-demand at http://www.pedro.mtv.com.

Additionally, fans can get to know Pedro by viewing the full season of The Real World San Francisco online. An educational discussion guide created by Planned Parenthood for the movie is available online at http://www.gyt09.org and at http://www.plannedparenthood.org.

For more information on GYT, please visit http://www.GYT09.org

  • Anti-Choice Ideology Infecting Bush's HIV/AIDS Policy

Feministe,
April 3, 2008
By Kelly Castagnaro

Despite evidence—and the efforts of Rep. Betty McCollum, experts and advocates around the world—the full House voted yesterday to reauthorize a $50 billion global HIV/AIDS relief initiative that threatens to further restrict, rather than support, expansion of HIV prevention through family planning services.
Several advocates and the mainstream media have overwhelmingly touted the President’s Plan for Emergency AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) as a legacy-building success, and in one case, the “AIDS relief miracle.” Today, nearly two million more people have access to anti-retroviral medication than five years ago due to U.S. government support. However, the number of people newly infected with HIV continues to outpace the number of people on treatment —hardly a miraculous approach to sustainable public health programming. |MORE

  • Ignorance Is Bliss, And Then You Get an STD

For today's teens, the instinctual quest for sex carries the risk of unspeakable pain. In the age of AIDS, the very act that gives life could end up being a death entence...|MORE: Courtland Milloy's article in Washington Post

  • Did you know that married women in much of the developing world are increasingly more likely to become infected with HIV than their single peers? The New Video from PAI Sheds Light on Married Women Living with HIV/AIDS. See it here .
  • A Bush Administration policy directed against prostitution could seriously restrict global efforts against HIV/AIDS. Two lawsuits are seeking to overturn this requirement -->>See further.
  • AIDS-Related Community Services (ARCS) is the largest organization dedicated solely to providing HIV/AIDS services to people in New York's Hudson Valley Region. Founded in 1983 it now services the needs of over 25,000 community members through offices in Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester Counties.
  • "U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero on Tuesday [5/9/06] in New York ruled that a U.S. policy requiring recipients of federal HIV/AIDS service grants to pledge to oppose commercial sex work violates the groups' First Amendment right to free speech." Read further.
  • The UNAIDS/WHO AIDS Epidemic Update 2005 reports on the latest developments in the global AIDS epidemic. The full report, fact sheets and graphics are now available. -->>See further.

  • "In a new report UNAids says there an estimated 40.3m people currently living with [HIV] across the world, with almost 5m infected in 2005." ->>Read further
  • Sad new statistics: shown graphically in world map. ->>Read further in special report from BBC published 11/21/05.
  • Personal Stories from Africa: "I'm a 43 year old mother of 4 daughters and a grandmother of one...I tested positive in March 2003... I was scared, DEAD SCARED." ->>Read further -- a grandmother's account of living with AIDS, and other poignant testimonials from sub-Saharan Africa.
  • Fact Sheets: The HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa
    "The HIV/AIDS epidemic has had its most profound impact to date in sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of people living with HIV/AIDS (64%), new HIV infections (63%), and AIDS-related deaths (74%) have been in this region, which only accounts for 11%-12% of the world’s population. This series of fact sheets includes an overview of the epidemic and individual country fact sheets for many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with data on the number of people living with HIV/AIDS, the number of deaths due to HIV/AIDS, the impact on women, young people and children, and other key aspects of the epidemic." -->>Read further: Kaiser Family Foundation's country-by-country fact sheets which were originally presented at a meeting of Africa’s Media Leaders in Johannesburg, South Africa, October 3-5, 2005.
  • "By 2003 15 million children under 18 had been orphaned by HIV/AIDS worldwide..." ->>Read further in comprehensive report from AVERT.
  • U.S. Group That Provides HIV Prevention Services to Commercial Sex Workers Abroad Sues USAID Over Loss of Grant. ->>Read further in a Kaiser Daily Report August 12, 2005.
  • The Bush administration's policy requiring domestic and international groups receiving U.S. funds to fight HIV/AIDS to pledge opposition to commercial sex work and sex trafficking "harms the important work the administration is funding," asserts a Bangor Daily News editorial. -->> Read further.
  • U.S. Government Denies HIV/AIDS Funds to Groups Lacking Anti-Prostitution Policy -->> Read further in special report from Alan Guttmacher Institute.
  • "Xolani wants to be a pilot when he grows up. That particular dream may seem a long way off ... Xolani is one of 12 million children in sub-Saharan Africa orphaned by Aids." -->> Read further in BBC's powerful article, "Orphans bear the cost of AIDS."