In the news ... 2009

Help ensure Project Inform’s
advocacy remains strong

December 1, 2009

Dear Friend,

As someone who has consistently supported efforts to end the enormous harm done by AIDS, you have a right to expect greater progress in the fight against the epidemic than is being made today.  This is a critical time to make certain that Project Inform’s advocacy to assure gains against HIV/AIDS remains strong. That is why I am asking you to consider making a contribution before December 31 to help us maintain our leadership role.

Clearly, great strides have been made against HIV since 1981.  In part due to Project Inform’s persistent advocacy, we now have an arsenal of powerful medications that can enable HIV-positive people to live a nearly normal lifespan.   Advocacy for affordable healthcare programs, also a top priority for us, has resulted in quality medical care and support services for hundreds of thousands of HIV-positive Americans.  And aggressive prevention efforts have spared countless people from becoming infected with HIV. 

Nevertheless, an estimated 240,000 Americans do not even know their HIV status. Shockingly, 2 out of 5 people learn their status so late that they develop full-blown AIDS within a year.  1 in 4 positive people are not in care that could save their lives because they do not have needed support to engage in it.  Every year for more than a decade, 56,300 Americans have become infected with HIV because new approaches to keeping people HIV-negative are badly needed.  And our convoluted patchwork of public programs cannot guarantee testing and treatment for all HIV-positive people who require it.  To make matters worse, cities and states across the country are slashing HIV program budgets due to the recession.  (Despite Project Inform’s strenuous efforts, Governor Schwarzenegger eliminated $85 million from California’s vital HIV programs just this year!)

These deficiencies in the response to HIV are not only unacceptable, they are unnecessary.  Our elected officials must advance policies that support better HIV outcomes.  More funding, and the better use of existing resources, are required to increase progress. And renewed support from a complacent public would encourage additional people to be tested and enter care and treatment.  However, the unacceptably slow pace of progress also results from the lack of a sense of urgency and courage, an unwillingness to abandon counter-productive policies and programs, a resistance to change and innovation, and the failure to reach consensus about how to make new strides.  There is far too much talk and far too little action to seize upon tools now available that would assure more Americans know their HIV status, more are engaged in care, and fewer become infected in the first place. 
Project Inform is dedicated to working with partner agencies who share our impatience to usher in a bold new strategy to end this painful chapter in human history.  Today, we are working to stimulate innovation, consensus and progress through these efforts:

• We sit on the Steering Committee of the Coalition for a National HIV/AIDS Strategy, which has secured President Obama’s commitment to develop a focused blueprint for how the nation will identify, treat and prevent more cases of HIV infection.  We are also participating in high-level consultations that will provide input into the Strategy;

• With support from the National Institutes of Health, we are leading a Think Tank of experts to build agreement about how to implement bold new programs to identify and treat more HIV-positive Americans in order to save their lives and help them to avoid passing HIV onto others;

• We are working alongside the Centers for Disease Control to determine whether and how high-risk people might take HIV drugs to prevent infection;

• We are working with national and local hepatitis C advocates to greatly increase the response to this related and undertreated epidemic, which affects up to 400,000 people with HIV;

• We continue our work to support drug discovery to assure increasingly safe and effective medications for HIV and hepatitis C, as well as to stimulate research into an actual cure for HIV;

• While continuing to provide thorough information about how and when to treat HIV, we are also considering new ways to support people to learn their status and consider treatment; and

• We are advocating for the needs of people living with and at risk for HIV in the debate over national health care reform so that our efforts to control the epidemic through increased testing and care might actually be financed.

As a loyal and valued donor, your support makes it possible for Project Inform to bring a new sense of urgency to the fight against HIV, to bring HIV experts together to craft innovative approaches that will assure greater progress in that fight, to challenge U.S. policymakers to do what is required to eradicate this epidemic once and for all, and to support individuals to make choices and access services to help them live healthfully with HIV!

Your donation of to Project Inform before December 31 will help us continue and even strengthen our leadership role.  We promise you this:  We honor the trust you place in us by working diligently and effectively to demand and achieve greater progress toward ending the loss and pain each of us has suffered because of this entirely controllable epidemic. 

With deep appreciation and wishes for a warm Holiday Season,

Dana Van Gorder, Executive Director

P.S.
Please consider giving to Project Inform by making a monthly pledge from your debit or credit card. Your investment in our work will be met with important results!