RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.,
Oct. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/
-- ViiV Healthcare today announced seven Positive Action
Southern Initiative grant awardees in Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi for programs focused on reducing
disparities in HIV/AIDS linkages to care and treatment among
at-risk populations in their communities. Recipients will receive
up to $50,000 per year for a
provisional commitment over the next two years to support the
following programs:
- Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition,
Inc., located in Atlanta, GA,
will enhance their Linkage to Treatment program and enhance the
reach and depth of their services to HIV positive individuals.
- Brotherhood, Inc., located in
New Orleans, LA, will expand their
work to address the needs of HIV positive African American
transgender persons and men who have sex with men (MSM) who are
recently released from prison.
- Family Services of Greater Baton Rouge, located in
Baton Rouge, LA, will enhance
their work to address gaps in services for HIV positive individuals
recently released from prison.
- Grace
House, Inc., located in Jackson, MS, will expand its supportive
services to homeless Mississippians living with and affected by
HIV/AIDS.
- My Brother's Keeper, Inc., located in
Ridgeland, MS, will fill gaps in
their current services by expanding HIV prevention and research
programs for African American MSM to include case management.
- SisterLove, Inc., located in
Atlanta, GA, will enhance their
"Everyone Has A Story" (EHAS) program through a series of
trainings/webinars to build the capacity and skills of peer
advocates, staff and volunteers.
- Someone Cares Inc. of Atlanta, located in
Atlanta, GA, will improve their
Transforming, Renewing and Unifying Transgender Health Project
(TRUTH) intervention to support transgender women of color.
Since its launch in 2010, the Positive Action Southern
Initiative has helped to enable effective interventions and quality
services to fight HIV in Southern states. In addition to
receiving funding, grantees also become part of the Southern
Initiative Network, a resource that supports grantees and grantee
finalists through networking activities, including opportunities to
share lessons learned with one another and with other community
experts. This collaborative network has now grown to include 32
organizations working together to share effective strategies for
addressing the HIV/AIDS crisis in the South.
"The Positive Action Southern Initiative is a direct reflection
of our commitment to working together with the community to improve
outcomes for those populations disproportionately affected by HIV,
and we continue to be impressed by the innovative ideas and strong
results put forth by the Network," said Bill Collier, Head of North America, ViiV Healthcare. "With
round six of the program, we're proud to continue funding effective
community-based initiatives, which are essential to meeting the
goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and reducing HIV-related
disparities in the Southern United
States."
Designed to address the gaps in care and treatment documented
through the Gardner Cascadei, the Positive Action
Southern Initiative reflects the White House National HIV/AIDS
Strategy by directing resources to areas and populations that have
the greatest need. The Southern United
States is disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS,
representing 45 percent of all new AIDS
diagnoses.ii
"The Southern AIDS Coalition and the Positive Action Southern
Initiative were born of the same purpose – to effectively address
the disparate impact of HIV on the Southern United States," said Rainey Campbell, Executive Director of the
Southern AIDS Coalition. "We've seen how the Southern Initiative
supports on-the-ground interventions and collaboration to influence
meaningful change across communities in our region. Expansion
of the program helps achieve our shared goals by providing further
access to high-quality prevention, treatment and care services in
order to reduce new infections and improve quality of life for
people living with HIV in the South."
With particular focus on reducing disparities among African
American and Latino populations, the Positive Action Southern
Initiative currently operates in 10 Southern states – Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North
Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Racial and ethnic minorities have been disproportionately
affected by HIV/AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic,
representing 68 percent of all new AIDS diagnoses in 2011, with new
infection rates highest among African-American adults and
adolescents.iii
These health disparities are particularly prevalent in the
Southern U.S. In Georgia, 55
percent of new HIV diagnoses were among African Americans in 2012,
despite comprising only 31 percent of the population in the
state.iv,v In Louisiana, 69 percent of newly
diagnosed HIV cases and 74 percent of newly diagnosed AIDS cases
were among African Americans in 2013, though African Americans make
up only 32 percent of Louisiana's
overall population.vi In Mississippi, where the
highest rate of HIV infections were among African Americans and
Hispanics (37 and 13 per 100,000 persons, respectively), African
Americans accounted for 75 percent of newly reported HIV infections
in 2012, and their rate of infection was six times higher than the
rate among Whites.vii
About ViiV Healthcare's Positive Action Program
The Southern Initiative is part of ViiV Healthcare's broader
Positive Action program that has empowered community organizations
in Africa, Europe, Latin
America and Asia over the
past 22 years. As a company focused solely on HIV/AIDS, ViiV
Healthcare is committed to building on the success of the global
program with efforts to support projects in the United States that address areas of
greatest need.
When Positive Action was created in 1992 it was the first
pharmaceutical company program of its kind to support communities
affected by HIV and AIDS. The program targets its funds towards
community-focused projects that reach those most affected by HIV,
particularly in marginalized or vulnerable populations. These
include youth, women and girls, sex workers, injection drug users,
MSM, the incarcerated, transgender individuals and gay men.
Positive Action works to build capacity in these communities to
enable them to tackle stigma and discrimination, to test
innovations in education, care and treatment, and to deliver
greater and meaningful involvement of people living with HIV.
For more information about Positive Action, please visit:
http://www.viivhealthcare.com/community-partnerships/positive-action/about.aspx
About ViiV Healthcare
ViiV Healthcare is a
global specialist HIV company established in November 2009 by GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) and
Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) dedicated to delivering advances in treatment
and care for people living with HIV. Shionogi joined as a
shareholder in October 2012. The
company's aim is to take a deeper and broader interest in HIV/AIDS
than any company has done before and take a new approach to deliver
effective and new HIV medicines, as well as support communities
affected by HIV. For more information on the company, its
management, portfolio, pipeline, and commitment, please visit
www.viivhealthcare.com.
[i] Gardner EM, McLees, MP, Steiner
JF, del Reio, C. The
Spectrum of Engagement in HIV Care and its Relevance to
Test-and-Treat Strategies for Prevention of HIV Infection. Clin
Infect Dis. 2011; 52 (6): 793-800.
[ii] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV and AIDS in
the United States by Geographic
Distribution.
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/factsheets/geographic.htm.
Accessed August 26, 2014.
[iii] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV
Surveillance by Race/Ethnicity (through 2011).
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pdf/statistics_surveillance_raceEthnicity.pdf.
Accessed August 26, 2014.
[iv] The Georgia Department of Public Health. Fact
Sheet: HIV Surveillance, Georgia,
2012.
http://dph.georgia.gov/sites/dph.georgia.gov/files/HIV_EPI_Fact_Sheet_Surveillance_2012.pdf.
Accessed September 18, 2014.
[v] United States Census Bureau. State & County Quick
Facts. Georgia.
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/13000.html. Accessed
September 18, 2014.
[vi] Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, Office of
Public Health, STD/HIV Program (SHP). Louisiana HIV/AIDS
Surveillance Quarterly Report, June 30,
2014.
http://www.dhh.louisiana.gov/assets/oph/HIVSTD/hiv-aids/2014/Second_Quarter2014.pdf.
Accessed September 18, 2014.
[vii] Mississippi State Department of Health. HIV Disease 2012
Fact Sheet.
http://msdh.ms.gov/msdhsite/_static/resources/5070.pdf.
Accessed September 18, 2014.
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SOURCE ViiV Healthcare