In This Issue
This is a really, really exciting time for the Black AIDS Institute, as we expand our services and partnerships to end the epidemic in Black communities. In this issue, we'd like to introduce you to two new members of the Institute's team: our prevention and care manager, Christopher Wilson-Smith, and mobilization manager, Darriane Martin.
Christopher will join our team to run the Black Treatment Advocates Network (BTAN) Los Angeles, the Institute's first fully funded BTAN chapter, supported with the five-year, $3.75 million CDC award that we told you about last week. Read on to learn more about Christopher and the Institute's vision for what BTAN could look like and the vital role it could play in ending the AIDS epidemic around the country.
Darriane will direct BTAN nationally. She will also run the all of our field operations, including our health department work, involvement in the Greater Than AIDS campaign and our technical assistance and mobilization efforts. Learn more about her in this issue, and come out to meet her today in Chicago, where I will provide an update on the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and answer the question: "What's In It for Black Folks?" We will also discuss next summer's International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa. See the Events section, below, for the logistics and how to RSVP.
Also in this issue, the FDA has has approved the Bio-Rad BioPlex 2200 HIV Ag-Ab assay, the first FDA-approved diagnostic that differentiates between HIV-1 and HIV-2 antibodies. We look at the challenges in rolling out PrEP in Latino communities. And our friends at AIDS.gov walk us along the path to the Hep C cure for PLWHA.
Finally, I want to point your attention toward our Events calendar, which provides links to several important happenings in September, when the U.S. Conference on AIDS is held in Washington, D.C. That week, before the conference begins, the Black AIDS Institute will be hosting the BTAN National Meeting and the Black PrEP Summit. We hope to see you there.
Yours in the struggle,
Phill