Getting Off on the Good Foot

Happy New Year.  Welcome to the first 2012 edition of the Black AIDS Weekly.  We hope your holidays were joyous and restful and that you are ready for an exciting and productive year.

This year we'll continue with familiar features, such as Ask the Doctor, essays from Black men and women living with HIV/AIDS, and stories about Black Treatment Advocates and other Black leaders.  We'll build on our coverage of exciting new biomedical and diagnostic breakthroughs and community mobilization activities in the pipeline. You'll meet our Greater Than AIDS ambassadors--Black artists and celebrities who use the VIP status to shine a spotlight on HIV/AIDS. And we'll cover the International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012), during the run-up as well as on site in Washington, D.C. this July.

We have reached a deciding moment in America's HIV/AIDS epidemic. The end of 2011 saw a number of significant milestones.  In November, Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton called on the world to create an AIDS-free generation. President Obama spoke on World AIDS Day about ending the AIDS epidemic.   This is great news. Now our challenge is to make it so, and to make sure that Black people are not left behind. A few treatments that work for some of the people some of the time does not the end make.  We need to make sure that that our communities understand the new tools at our disposal and have appropriate access. To do this, in 2012, the Black AIDS Weekly will focus on a number of very important issues:

• The development of new biomedical interventions;
• Research on the appropriate application of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP);
• The scale-up in the use of microbicides;
• Work to dramatically increase appropriate early utilization of HIV treatments to improve medical outcomes;
• Efforts to expand treatment as prevention.

In July the eyes of the world will be us. After a 22-year absence the International AIDS Conference will convene in Washington D.C.  Scientists, clinicians, advocates, people living with HIV/AIDS and journalists from every corner of the globe will come together as a global community. We need to leverage this remarkable opportunity. During the conference we really need to turn the tide together by strategizing about how to end the AIDS pandemic. We will be there reporting every single day to make sure you don’t miss a minute of it.

More than ever before, we need to come together as a community. The stakes are high and the consequences of not taking action are tremendous. We have both a responsibility and an opportunity.  Together, we are greater than AIDS.  Together, we will end this epidemic.

Yours in the struggle,

Phill