Activists ask CDC to open doors, expand prevention techniques
By RYAN LEE in Southern Voice NOV. 9, 2007
[pictured - Jeff Graham is one of the Georgia organizers of the Prevention Justice Mobilization.]
After being boiled down to three basic strategies — abstain from sex, wear a condom and avoid sharing needles — HIV prevention in America is in urgent need of an expanded approach, according to a nationwide coalition of AIDS organizations known as the Prevention Justice Mobilization.
Traditional HIV-prevention messages tend to focus on personal responsibility and reducing individual risk factors while ignoring broader issues like poverty, homophobia and homelessness that may increase a person’s risk no matter what steps they take to remain uninfected, said Kenyon Farrow, a spokesperson for the Prevention Justice Mobilization.
“There are also the sort of structural risk factors, so that sometimes it’s not
about what you do, but who you are,” Farrow said.More than 250 AIDS organizations across the country have endorsed the Prevention Justice Mobilization’s goals, and are using their World AIDS Day events to draw attention to everything from the unavailability of condoms in New York prisons, to the need for public funding of a needle-exchange program in Fulton County.
The Prevention Justice Mobilization’s activities culminate in a Dec. 4 march and rally in Atlanta, designed to inject new ideas into the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s National HIV Prevention Conference, which takes place Dec. 2-5 in Atlanta.
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Learn more about the Prevention Justice Mobilization.
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