Women Commend President Obama’s Leadership on National HIV/AIDS Strategy; Urge Increased Focus on Women; Southern U.S. and “Shadow Cities” in Implementation

Wednesday July 13, Oakland CA - One year after the release of the U.S. National HIV/AIDS Strategy, HIV-positive women leaders are cautiously optimistic and urge increased attention on women’s issues and the U.S. South.
 
The first-ever coordinated and comprehensive effort to address the U.S. domestic HIV epidemic, the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (“Strategy”) has the potential to be groundbreaking, say advocates for women.  Advocates are encouraged that the Obama Administration has held themselves to the same standards of recipients of U.S. PEPFAR funding and developed a strategic plan of action to approach the epidemic at home. The Strategy has gone above and beyond previous governmental approaches to the HIV epidemic by addressing the HIV-related stigma and racial and ethnic disparities that continue to plague the U.S. HIV epidemic. 
 
Thirty years into the HIV epidemic, however, women of color in the U.S., especially Black and Latina women, bear a disproportionate burden of the epidemic. This burden is especially pronounced when women’s care taking responsibilities for children, families, and partners are taken into consideration. Yet funding for women-focused HIV services seems to be disappearing at an alarming rate. The Strategy’s first funded effort, the “12 Cities Project”, targeted twelve metropolitan areas with the highest cumulative AIDS rates with grants of about $1 million each for HIV testing, surveillance, data collection, and a review and improvement of prevention activities.  Limiting the focus to these twelve major metropolitan areas has its pitfalls, say advocates for women. Particularly given rising incidence rates among women in the South and rural areas where data shows living HIV and AIDS rates are higher than in many 12 Cities areas and where 12 Cities demonstration projects will likely not translate.