World AIDS Day Outreach Resources
World AIDS Day 2012
RESULTS is committed to marking World AIDS Day annually by taking action and reaching out to communities. Through messages to legislators, published media, and awareness-raising events in towns and cities, activists all over the country are calling for the US to continue to show great leadership for a reality we are all dreaming of – the end of AIDS.
In 2012 we have made special arrangements for our groups to host screenings of the film How to Survive a Plague. But even if you aren’t hosting a screening, resources for a variety of World AIDS Day outreach events are here for your use.
2012 World AIDS Day Outreach & Action Resources
Most Useful: How to Survive a Plague planning and discussion guide
Opportunities to Get Invovled with RESULTS Half-Sheets (customizable)
November Action Sheet: Support the Global Fund
How to Survive a Plague documentary website
Easy-to-customize flyer for your How to Survive a Plague screening
RESULTS’ Activist Milestone #5 on how to organize a community outreach activity
RESULTS’ Activist Milestone #2 on organizing a letter-writing event using our World AIDS Day Action Sheet or our online action
Downloadable, printable information about RESULTS
Post your picture on Huffington Post’s “The Big Push” (#thebigpush on Twitter).
Other Resources:
- Powerful 4-minute film, The End of AIDS? by the Stop AIDS Campaign
- Talk show on TB from the International AIDS Conference 2012 (full program) (13 segments)
- amFAR’s 2011 Issue Brief: Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic: A Moment of Decision
- Secretary of State Clinton’s 2011 remarks on the possibility of an AIDS-free generation
- Ending the TB Epidemic, online resources from the ACTION Project
- The World Health Organization’s Global Tuberculosis Report 2012
Annually on December 1, the global community commemorates World AIDS Day by bringing attention to the global epidemic that still infects 2.7 million new people and claims 2 million lives every year. These are sobering numbers, but this year World AIDS Day comes after a string of stunning scientific advances that has fundamentally altered the possibilities in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The end of the AIDS epidemic is within our grasp.
AIDS Treatment is Prevention
In May 2011, researchers announced the results of a breakthrough study that proved conclusively what AIDS researchers had long suspected: treating HIV-positive people with anti-retroviral therapy (ART) can reduce the risk that they transmit the virus to their uninfected partners. In fact, researchers found that when treatment was initiated early in the progression of the disease (as opposed to waiting for the patients to become sick), there was a 96 percent reduction in the risk of transmission.
Early AIDS treatment not only reduces transmission of HIV, it can also protect HIV-positive people from opportunistic infections like TB. The study found that early AIDS treatment reduced the occurrence of TB infection by 84 percent.
The implications of the study for the future of HIV/AIDS are momentous. We now know that treatment is prevention.
This evidence, combined with recent economic modeling that shows that investing more in AIDS now will not only reduce deaths but also reduce the cost of the epidemic in the long run, shows that we can turn the tides against HIV/AIDS if we have the political will.
Translating Evidence into Action
Despite this emerging opportunity, global AIDS spending fell in 2010 for the first time in a decade. It is in this context of bold new evidence and wavering political commitment that we approach World AIDS Day 2011. World AIDS Day will be a critical moment to begin to make the case to members of Congress and the White House that U.S. global AIDS policy must continue to follow the evidence.
What makes this World AIDS Day so significant is it will begin the unofficial run-up to the International AIDS Conference, which will be held in Washington, DC in July 2012. The IAC will attract tens of thousands of AIDS researchers, clinicians, activists and people living with the disease. Historically, this biannual conference has served as a key forum to generate global political momentum in the fight against HIV/AIDS. RESULTS activists will be instrumental voices in building this movement.
The U.S. has led the way in scaling up treatment so that today 6.6 million people are on therapy. U.S.-funded research has proven that aggressively scaling up treatment can prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and save lives from TB. The United States’ top infectious disease expert, Dr. Tony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, recently wrote that “for the first time in the history of HIV/AIDS, controlling and ending the pandemic are feasible.”