AEGiS-WSJ: New Effort to Warn of HIV Risk in U.S.

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

New Effort to Warn of HIV Risk in U.S.

Wall Street Journal - April 8, 2009
Betsy Mckay

Federal health officials are launching a national campaign to slow the spread of HIV domestically, as they seek to place new emphasis on an epidemic that continues to rage at home as well as overseas.

The campaign is driven in part by revised statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention several months ago that showed the annual rate of HIV infection in the U.S. to be far higher than previously thought.

Federal officials are also concerned that while the spread of AIDS in Africa and other developing parts of the world tends to be at the forefront of peoples' minds, many Americans are unaware of the toll AIDS takes in the U.S. and the risks they face of infection.

Among the messages health officials want to impart is that every 9 and a half minutes one person in the U.S. becomes infected with HIV.

Roughly 56,000 people become infected with HIV every year in the U.S., according to the revised CDC statistics, compared with a previous annual estimate of 40,000 new cases a year. About 1.1 million people are infected and 21% of them are unaware of their infection, the CDC estimates. About 14,000 people die of AIDS annually in the U.S., according to the CDC.

"There is a serious health threat to our nation -- and that threat is complacency," said Kevin Fenton, HIV/AIDS chief at the CDC, the federal agency running the five-year, $45 million campaign. "We need to create a basic core awareness and a national dialogue."

Act Against AIDS is the federal government's first national campaign since 1995, though federal funds regularly flow to state and local campaigns that warn people of the risks of HIV infection and promote HIV testing. Video, audio, print and online advertising will largely target groups at highest risk, starting with African-Americans, as well as Latino populations, the CDC said.

While African-Americans make up 12% of the U.S. population, they represent nearly half of new HIV infections and AIDS deaths every year. One in every 16 African-American men and one in every 30 African-American women will become infected with HIV in the course of their lifetime, Dr. Fenton said. Yet many of those at the highest risk of HIV infection don't realize the level of risk they face or believe that HIV is no longer a serious health threat, he said.

The campaign will rely on some frank talk on how to prevent HIV. A Web site launched Tuesday urges people to abstain from sex but to use condoms every time they have sex. The Web site also offers visitors information on where to get tested for HIV infection.

The Obama administration has pledged greater support for domestic HIV prevention, but funding for the campaign will come from the CDC's existing budget. The agency received about $750 million for domestic HIV prevention efforts in fiscal 2009, roughly the same as in fiscal 2008. It will fund the first year of the campaign out of this $750 million. Only 4% of federal funding for HIV/AIDS is currently devoted to domestic prevention, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis.

The CDC said it is enlisting the help of the Kaiser Family Foundation to persuade major media and entertainment outlets to carry the messages. The agency also formed a partnership with several African-American organizations, hoping civil-rights and other groups will help it get its message out.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, an HIV/AIDS health-care provider, said the government should spend $200 million to test 10 million people for HIV infection over the next three years. "A $45 million communications plan, no matter how well intended, will do little to help identify" approximately 300,000 people in the U.S. who don't know they are infected and could be unknowingly spreading the epidemic to others, Michael Weinstein, the organization's president, said in a statement.

Write to Betsy McKay at betsy.mckay@wsj.com

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