Posts Tagged ‘Centers for Disease Control’

UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital awarded grant for sickle cell initiative.

Two Oakland based organizations, the National Coalition of 100 Black Women Inc. and advocacy group California Prostitute Education Project (CAL-PEP) are leading efforts to reduce the rate of new HIV infections among young people in Oakland with free testing and a billboard campaign dubbed “Sistahs Getting Real about HIV.”

In places like Oakland, where local authorities treat syringe exchange as an accepted public health practice, groups like HEPPAC no longer face the risk of arrest. Today their challenge is going mainstream, and needle exchange programs are now reaching for the biggest government seal of approval of all—federal funding.

As health organizers around the globe assess the illness during the week of World AIDS Day, local officials say funding cuts and young people’s attitudes are contributing to new infections and the comparatively higher rates of HIV/AIDS among black teens and women.