AIDS Education Month Events

Posted by on April 26, 2002

Philadelphia FIGHT Once Again Declares June AIDS Education Month

This June, Philadelphia FIGHT presents the 8th annual AIDS Education Month. With an unprecedented schedule of events, FIGHT will once again bring the latest information about research and cutting-edge therapies to the Philadelphia community. Local, national and international speakers will discuss a wide array of issues surrounding HIV and AIDS.

June 2002 marks 21 years since the official recognition of the disease that would come to be known as AIDS. In Philadelphia, 17,000 people have been diagnosed with AIDS since the epidemic began. 9,000 of these have died. 16,000 people are living with HIV in Philadelphia today. Those at greatest risk are young people, gay men of color, and people with a history of substance abuse. Every year the percentage of women living with HIV increases. Many people infected with HIV in Philadelphia don’t know that they are infected, and fail to access treatment until late in their disease.

FIGHT has several education programs scheduled in various locations throughout the month. Weekly events will be held at The White Dog Caf? in West Philadelphia. “The response to the programs we did with the White Dog last year was phenomenal,” said Jane Shull, executive director of FIGHT. “Collaborations like these allow us to get life-saving information to people who might not get it through traditional methods.”

The centerpiece of the education programs will be Wednesday June 5th, when Philadelphia FIGHT will bring leading scientists and consumer advocates to Philadelphia for a one-day conference on Immune Based Therapies. The conference will update the community on the latest treatment options that
encourage the immune system to fight HIV/AIDS. The opening session will highlight the importance of the dissemination of reliable information and will honor the work of Project Inform, a group that has been at the frontlines in the fight against HIV and AIDS since 1985-when reliable information about the disease and its treatment was nearly impossible to obtain. Other sessions will focus on prevention, informing the community of the many different prevention options; a luncheon session will focus on nutrition, metabolism, and alternative therapies. In addition, on the 20th of June, FIGHT will host a reception and open house to allow the community to explore all of the services FIGHT has to offer.

Philadelphia FIGHT (FIGHT) is a comprehensive AIDS service organization providing HIV primary care, outreach, consumer education, advocacy and research on potential treatments and vaccines. Our goal is to end the epidemic in the lifetime of people living with HIV today. FIGHT provides primary care to people with HIV/AIDS at the Jonathan Lax Immune Disorders Treatment Center, which offers state-of-the-art clinical care to address the comprehensive needs of people with HIV/AIDS. We also conduct research to test potential therapies for HIV/AIDS, including the first North American trial of a potential vaccine. In addition to treatment and research, FIGHT is home to a variety of prevention, education, and information services including Care Outreach; The AIDS Library; Critical Path AIDS Project; Project TEACH (Treatment Education Activists Combating HIV); and the Youth Health Empowerment Project (Y-HEP).

Schedules for all the programs of AIDS Education Month will be available on the website at http://www.fight.org/aem as well as at Philadelphia FIGHT, 1233 Locust Street, 5th Floor. For more information, please call FIGHT at 215-985-4448.