Social marketing campaign targets AIDS/HIV

By: Iris St. Meran

There's been a spike in AIDS and HIV cases in Onondaga County among young people. And some of them are only in their teens. There's a new marketing campaign around the county and on Facebook to get the word out about the numbers. Our Iris St. Meran has more on the campaign and how health groups hope the youth take action to protect themselves and others.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Make "One Decision." That's the goal behind a new STD/AIDS and HIV prevention campaign. Brandon King made the decision to share his story about living with HIV to help others.
King said, "I had an addiction problem. I lived out in Denver and that's where I contracted the virus and moved back here for family support. But my decision was to take care of myself."
Billboards asking "When Does Reality Hit You?" are popping up in the area. Onondaga County Health officials want this campaign to be a reality check.
Onondaga County Health Commissioner Cynthia Morrow said, "If we can prevent one youth from becoming HIV positive, we've done our job."
A job they're undertaking due to a spike in the numbers of young people being diagnosed. There were 661 cases of STDs reported in people ages 13 to 25 in Onondaga County last year. Between 2006-2010, 41 people in this age group were diagnosed with HIV and a majority of them are African American.
"It is within the community of color, again, because of the lack of education and prevention. Additionally, it is because we are not, which we are now able to do, provide testing," said Southwest Community Center Health Services Director Reverend H. Bernard Alex.
The Facebook campaign encourages youth to be proactive. One student said she's choosing to teach her peers how serious an HIV diagnosis is.
Fowler High School student Xiomy Cordero said, "You have it for life. We're not Magic Johnson and stuff, we can't really afford the fancy medicines, all that to treat HIV, so we have to do what we can to prevent that from happening."
And that's the goal to show this is preventable if everyone takes charge of their health and share what they know with others.

That Facebook page is a major part of this campaign. People are urged to go to facebook.com/OneDecision.

Researchers United to Find a HIV cure www.newsbycompany.com

Researchers United to Find a HIV cure www.newsbycompany.com

HIV/AIDS on rise in Louisville as disease loses emphasis

Three decades after the AIDS epidemic first frightened the nation, the deadly immune disease is seeing a resurgence in Louisville, with rates of new cases up 30 percent in recent years.

“People think it's a disease of the past. Unfortunately, it's very much alive,” said Janet Mann, director of program development for AIDS Interfaith Ministries of Kentuckiana, which held a breakfast meeting Thursday to talk with community leaders about the disease's impact in Louisville.
The rate of newly diagnosed AIDS cases in Jefferson County rose from 11.4 per 100,000 people — 80 cases — in 2005 to 14.9 per 100,000 — 107cases — in 2008, the latest year for which reliable state health statistics are available.
And new cases of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, rose from 19.3 per 100,000 — 136 cases— to 21.5 per 100,000 — 154 cases — during that same period in Jefferson County. The HIV numbers don't count the one in five infected people that experts estimate have never been tested.
One big reason for the increase in Louisville is that many people no longer view AIDS as a dangerous disease now that medications can keep people alive –— so they're more likely to have unprotected sex that puts them at risk, health experts and activists say.
“People think: All I have to do is take a few pills every day. But it still kills people … and it affects quality of life,” said Bobby Edelen, a 54-year-old Louisville man who has lived with the virus that causes AIDS for 21 years and suffers medication side-effects such as nausea, occasional diarrhea and fatigue. “Every day is not a picnic. I would have bad days almost daily if I would give in.”
Besides complacency, health officials and activists said drug use and too little education on the disease also are driving up AIDS and HIV numbers. So is the fact that so many people are infected with the virus but don't know it, they said, making them more likely to spread it to others.
But as the epidemic grows, health officials and activists point out that there are fewer resources to fight it.
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