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Seniors Need to Pay Attention to World AIDS Day, Dec. 1

Jane Fowler, a 69-year-old grandmother, found out she had HIV from an insurance letter informing her of abnormal blood test results. Fowler, who is divorced, contracted the virus from a male friend she was dating. She is featured on CNN - click here "What I want to say to everyone, at any age: You do not know the sexual history of anybody else, only yourself."

Nov. 30, 2004 - Wednesday, December 1, is World AIDS Day, an annual global event dedicated to remembering the victims of AIDS, learning more about the devastating effects of the disease around the world, and reaffirming the commitment to fight it. The focus this year is on women and girls, but AIDS among senior citizens is also getting attention.

Through 2002, the latest year for which statistics are available, 12,868 persons 65 and older have been diagnosed with AIDS. CNN has run features this week highlighting the increase of HIV cases among seniors. (For CNN feature - click here)

AIDS has killed more than 20 million people since the first cases were diagnosed in 1981, including 2.9 million in 2003 alone.  It is estimated that 37.8 million people were infected with HIV at the end of 2003, with 4.8 million new cases that year.  Sub-Saharan Africa is the worst-hit region, with 70 percent of all people living with HIV.

This year’s theme is “Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS,” which reflects a focus on how the effects of HIV/AIDS have significantly increased among women.  Women now make up half of all people living with HIV worldwide, and 57 percent of these women live in sub-Saharan Africa.  In that region, women are infected at an earlier age than men, and the ratio of new infections among women compared to men is even higher within the 15–24 age group.  Poverty, instability, violence, lack of access to adequate health care, and ignorance all contribute to the problem.

In the United States, up to 950,000 Americans are estimated to have HIV, with 40,000 new infections every year.  Among women, minorities—particularly African Americans—are hit by the vast majority of AIDS cases.  Rates of HIV/AIDS diagnoses in African-American women are 19 times higher than those of white women and 5 times higher than those of Hispanic women in the 32 states with stable HIV/AIDS reporting. AIDS is one of the leading causes of death among all women aged 25-44 years.

Statement by Tommy G. Thompson Secretary of Health and Human Services Regarding World AIDS Day, December 1, 2004

World AIDS Day is an important opportunity to remember those lost to AIDS. Just as importantly, it is an opportunity to raise awareness of the global epidemic and efforts to halt the spread of this terrible disease.

HIV/AIDS continues to be a growing threat to world health. An estimated 39 million people are infected with HIV. About 3 million men and women died of AIDS in 2003 and there were close to 5 million new infections worldwide. In the United States, it is estimated that up to 950,000 Americans are living with HIV, with 40,000 new infections every year.

This Administration has made unprecedented commitments to the fight and we remain unwavering in our efforts to stop this epidemic here and across the globe. This year, President Bush has committed $2.4 billion to his Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which expects to support treatment for 2 million HIV-infected people and prevent 7 million new infections. The Emergency Plan provides services to over 100 countries around the world, including 15 focus nations in Africa, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. In addition, the President has supported reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act, which provides support to those most in need, and made another $20 million available to deliver much-needed medication to HIV-positive persons. Finally, the President has requested $17.1 billion to help fight the epidemic in the United States for FY 2005 -- a 27 percent increase since 2001 -- and another $2.8 billion for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

This year's commemoration has a special focus on the increasingly alarming impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls. For the first time, women and girls compose almost half of the people with HIV. In sub-Saharan Africa, 57 percent of people living with AIDS are female. In the United States, women accounted for 26 percent of all AIDS cases in 2002, up from 6 percent in 1985. Minority women are disproportionately impacted, comprising 80 percent of American women living with AIDS.

In communities across this country, there are vibrant examples of HHS-supported programs targeted at women that are making a difference. The Children's Hospital in New Orleans, with support from HHS, provides confidential, culturally competent, family-centered care -- including transportation and child care -- for more than a thousand women living with HIV. The Well Being Institute in Detroit serves HIV-infected women, mostly African American, who have sought care for this disease but have been unable to consistently follow through with their own care. In addition, the University of Miami School of Medicine is implementing the Caring Connections Intervention targeted to sero-positive women and children, helping them take their medicines and get to their doctors' appointments.

Over the past year, we have taken important steps to encourage HIV testing. Getting tested for HIV shows your loved ones you care about them and it's an important personal contribution to the fight against this devastating disease. That is a theme we are aggressively promoting through new public service advertisements developed in partnership with the Ad Council. The two new television target African American men between the ages of 13 and 28 and communicates that knowing their HIV status is the first step in fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS. I call on local television stations to help us combat the scourge of HIV by airing these advertisements and educating their communities.

These efforts and others are reaching across the globe to prevent the spread of HIV, find a vaccine, provide treatment to those affected, encourage HIV testing among at-risk individuals so they can know their status and seek assistance if necessary, and care for orphans and other left behind after AIDS has struck.

For more information, contact the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National AIDS Hotline at 1-800-342-AIDS or visit the Federal National HIV/AIDS Observance Days Web site at www.omhrc.gov/hivaidsobservances.

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