PRNewswire - October 24, 2000

Featuring a key note address by New York State Health Commissioner Antonia Novello, MD, DPH, this multidisciplinary conference of HIV care providers aims to increase providers' understanding and implementation of voluntary HIV counseling, testing, treatment and prevention among their adolescent patients to stem the growing crisis of HIV infection in youth.

"Research indicates that every hour of every day, two young Americans aged 13 to 25 are becoming infected with HIV," said Dr. Novello. "Of the estimated 40,000 Americans who will become infected this year, half will be young people under age 25." If the threat of HIV is to be reduced, Dr. Novello said that young people must receive messages about prevention and testing and have easy access to health care services. "We must end the silence and secrecy that prevents us from talking openly about HIV and AIDS in our families, our communities, and physician offices," she said.

The conference will be a call to action to build a national coalition to address the growing problem of HIV among youth on local, national and international levels. Other presenters illustrate the risk of HIV among youth and demonstrate how HIV intersects with other challenges facing young people.

Additional program components include roundtables and role-play in which providers, communities and youth will explore the issues affecting HIV testing and care.

Speakers representing the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Health Resources Service Administration (HRSA), medical providers, Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), and the Balm in Gilead among numerous others, will cover topics ranging from working with schools and gay and lesbian youth to advocacy, anti-retroviral therapy, adherence issues and strategies. HIV-positive youth will also have a vocal and important role.

The conference will also energize providers to participate in the third annual "HIV. Live With It. Get Tested!" Week (beginning on World AIDS Day, December 1-9), a program encouraging free, confidential, youth-friendly HIV counseling and testing at health care sites throughout Baltimore, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City and Washington, D.C.

Because young adults and teens can be difficult to reach with HIV prevention and testing messages, the "HIV. Live With It. Get Tested!" campaign targets teens in their own language to identify those who are infected and help them get proper health care, and to educate about risk reduction. This year's campaign slogans are "Doin' It?" and "Gettin' Busy?" -- youth phrases for having sex. Outdoor materials and palm cards put a face on youth and HIV, and radio ads reach them where they listen. The hip teen zine, "The Deal," is a novel communications component that will be widely distributed at concerts, street fairs and through peer education and street outreach.

Community visibility is created for the campaign using paid advertising, public service announcements, street marketing and public relations as components of an integrated communications program to effectively get messages in the streets and on the airwaves, at the highest volume during "Get Tested!" Week. By calling 718-881-TEST or visiting http://www.HIVGetTested.com, young people can receive information about youth-oriented clinics that they can visit throughout the five boroughs of New York City.

"In New York alone, there may be as many as 10,000 -- 20,000 youth infected who don't yet know it, and thus can't benefit from care and preventive services," said Donna Futterman, MD, director of Montefiore's Adolescent AIDS Program. "We have been gratified by the response we've received from health care providers and young people who have rallied to participate in this year's 'Get Tested!' campaign. We believe in the campaign's unique potential to encourage young people to get tested and become aware of their status."

The "Gettin' Busy: Youth and HIV Conference" is sponsored by the Adolescent AIDS Program/Montefiore Medical Center and "HIV. Live with it. Get Tested!", a project of the Adolescent Medicine HIV/AIDS Research Network (AMHARN), funded by the NIH, which provides national leadership on key research, policy and care issues facing HIV-infected youth. Major conference funding is provided by the HRSA HIV/AIDS Bureau/AETC. Additional support comes from SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration); OraSure Technologies; AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth & Families; and LIFEbeat, the music industry's fight against AIDS.

The Adolescent AIDS Program of Montefiore Medical Center was created in 1987 to provide comprehensive medical and psychosocial care for HIV-infected youth, engage in relevant research and to raise public awareness about youth and HIV. It is the nation's first and largest HIV testing, counseling and medical treatment clinic offering services to HIV-infected youth and at-risk youth between the ages of 13 and 21.

For more information on the conference, visit http://www.adolescentaids.org.

SOURCE The Adolescent AIDS Program of Montefiore Medical Center Web Site: http://www.adolescentaids.org http://www.HIVGetTested.com

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