Ending the Epidemic: Declaration to end AIDS in America

Blue RibbonBlue Ribbon Panel

The momentum to bring an end to HIV is coalescing, we’re asking everyone to commit in writing to ending the epidemic.  Will you sign the Declaration to END AIDS in America?  A Blue Ribbon Panel will draft the treatise.  The Declaration will crystallize our values and beliefs on how to take the science of Treatment as Prevention (TasP), High Impact Prevention (HIP), and Combination Prevention and make it work at a community level.   It will challenge us to use the Affordable Care Act and the Ryan White Care Act to provide essential services for People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) so that our grandchildren will have an AIDS free generation.  This oath provides an aspirational set of principles to guide our movement and the nation.  It will put the leadership and the perspective of PLWHA upfront, and be committed to decreasing new HIV infections while highlighting the continued need for a vaccine and a cure.

The official signing of the Declaration will occur at this year’s Summit to End the HIV/AIDS Epidemic. The Summit will be September 29-30 in Las Vegas, just prior to the United States Conference on AIDS. The document will be open for everyone to sign and commit to ending the epidemic.

The declaration will not be a laundry list of needs, instead it will focus on four points:

Promote PLWHA leadership in efforts to increase health care engagement and treatment

    1. Eliminate new HIV infections
    2. Reduce stigma, discrimination, and social injustices which increase HIV vulnerability and health disparities
    3. Maintain strong commitment to finding a vaccine and a cure

The Declaration requires money, in-kind donations, human resources and commitment.  A successful outcome depends upon planning, cooperation and a vision to make it real.  It will not happen overnight, but imagine when we are successful.

Dr. Julio Montaner will Chair the panel.  Dr. Montaner is widely regarded as one of the fathers of TasP.  His cutting edge work regarding advocacy and implementation of TasP has brought us to this moment in history.  Now we must take the science and implement it at a community level.

Please see all of them below:

Chair
Julio Montaner, MD, FRCPC, FCCP
BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

 

Members
Bertrand Audoin
International AIDS Society

 

Jeff Bachar
Western North Carolina AIDS Project

 

Nancy Bernstein
National AIDS Housing Coalition

 

Don Blanchon
Whiteman Walker Health

 

Scott Campbell
Elton John AIDS Foundation

 

Robert Carroll
Association of Nurses in AIDS Care

 

Kevin Cathcart
Lambda Legal

 

Guillermo Chacon
Latino Commission on AIDS

 

Tommy Chesbro
HIV+ Activist

 

Cyndee Clay
Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive

 

Chris Collins
amfAR

 

Masen Davis
Transgender Law Center

 

Oscar De La O
Bienestar

 

John Duran
HIV+ Elected Official
West Hollywood City Council

 

Jamal Edwards
Howard Brown Health Center

 

Bill Farrand
Test Positive Aware Network

 

Ingrid Floyd
Iris House

 

Robert Greenwald
Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation
Harvard Law School

 

Neil Giuliano
San Francisco AIDS Foundation

 

Kathie Heirs
AIDS Alabama

 

Marjorie Hill
Gay Men’s Health Crisis

 

Regan Hoffman
HIV+ Magazine Editor
POZ Magazine

 

Jody Huckaby
PFLAG National (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays)

 

Rebecca Issacs
Equality Federation

 

Lorri Jean
LA Gay & Lesbian Center

 

Loretta Jennings
Outreach Inc.

 

Mark Johnson
Brotherhood, Inc.

 

Monica Johnson
HIV+ Executive Director
HEROES

 

Ronald Johnson
HIV+ Activist
AIDS United

 

Wilbur Jordan, MD
Los Angeles, CA

 

Michael Kaplan
HIV+ Executive Director
Cascade AIDS Project

 

Paul Kawata
National Minority AIDS Council

 

Mara Keisling
National Center for Transgender Equality

 

Reverend Joyce Turner Keller
Aspirations

 

Kate Kendell
National Center For Lesbian Rights

 

Sharon J. Lettman-Hicks
National Black Justice Coalition

 

Jeff Levi
Trust for America’s Health

 

Lance Toma
Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center

 

Marsha Martin
Urban Coalition for HIV/AIDS Prevention Services

 

Terry McGovern
Ford Foundation

 

Hernan Molina
West Hollywood City Council

 

David Munar
AIDS Foundation of Chicago

 

Kathy O’Brien
Hyacinth AIDS Foundation

 

Gregory Pappas, MD, PhD
HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD and TB Administration
DC Department of Health

 

Mario Perez
Los Angeles Office of AIDS Programs and Policy

 

Alvan Quamina
AIDS Project of the East Bay

 

Patrick Reynolds
The House That Wisdom Built

 

Valerie Rochester
Black Women’s Health Imperative

 

Therese Rodriguez
Asian Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS

 

Michael Ruppal
The AIDS Institute

 

Randy Russell
Lifelong AIDS Alliance

 

Bamby Salcedo
HIV+ Trans Activist
Los Angeles Children’s Hospital

 

Eric Sawyer
HIV+ Activist
UNAIDS

 

Julie Scofield
National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors

 

Pernessa Seele
The Balm in Gilead

 

Ron Simmons
Us Helping Us

 

William Smith
National Coalition of STD Directors

 

Terry Stone
CenterLink

 

Adam Tenner
Metro Teen AIDS

 

Dan Tietz
AIDS Community Research Initiative of America

 

Carole Treston
AIDS Alliance for Children Youth and Families

 

Calvin Twoguns
Liberty Research Group

 

Evelyn Ullah
Broward County Health Department

 

Modesto Tico Valle
Center on Halsted

 

Dana Van Gorder
Project Inform

 

Steven Wakefield
HIV Vaccine Trials Network

 

Andrea Weddle
HIV Medicine Association

 

Phill Wilson
HIV+ Executive Director
The Black AIDS Institute

 

A. Toni Young
Community Health Education Group

 

Jose Zuniga
International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care

 

We can end this epidemic, but its going to take all of us—working together.  If you want to have input into the Declaration, please contact Kali Lindsey klindsey@nmac.org. More information about the Summit To END HIV/AIDS in America will be released in August.

Yours in the struggle,

 

PK Signature

 

Paul Kawata
Executive Director