North Country Marks World AIDS Day

The government said there are now more specialized centers to help treat and prevent HIV, but doctors admit that there is a delay in getting vital drugs to those who test positive. Maximizing these tools requires working together to confront and overcome the challenges that remain.

Starting Monday, Dec. 7 Eastern Idaho Public Health will offer free HIV testing. The path forward is clearer than ever, and the time to act is now.

Tim Horn, a native New Yorker and longtime AIDS activist, was happy when Governor Andrew Cuomo marked World AIDS Day by announcing on Monday his plans to invest $200 million in additional state funding to fight the disease.

US Ambassador Robert Godec said despite considerable progress in the overall global HIV and Aids response, 380,000 adolescent girls and young women get infected every year in Sub-Saharan Africa translating to around 1,000 girls every day.

“I’ll turn 60 next year and I’ve had HIV for 34 years – that doesn’t mean that I’m not dealing with a whole ton of health issues that it’s not just popping a pill a day”. HIV is spread in the USA mainly through having unprotected sex or sharing injection-drug equipment with someone who has the virus.

Levine said the state’s Medicaid expansion, which became available at the start of this year, assures medical coverage to people with HIV, which is the virus which causes AIDS, or AIDS. The HASA program is now limited to those who have AIDS or symptomatic HIV. “It is not right and that is why we are unable to provide the response to everybody that should be on treatment right now”, Ogundipe said.

If you aren’t sure of your HIV status, you can go to ACR Health at 120 Washington Street in Watertown.

According to Ogundipe, “we are seeking a focus that by 2030, HIV in Nigeria should have reduced to the level where is of no national significance and people see it as any other disease”, he said.

Warren says people testing positive are living longer, with fewer side affects, but 25 per cent of people living with HIV don’t know they have it.

Health officials say the best prevention is abstinence and protection.