Source: Xinhua
04-08-2009 21:47
Special Report: Tech MaxBEIJING, April 8 (Xinhuanet) -- The United States launched a five-year, 45 million dollar media blitz Tuesday to spark awareness about HIV infection and AIDS.
The campaign, Act Against AIDS, will include public service announcements, advertising on trains, buses and other modes of public transportation, text messages and a Web site -- a reference to the frequency with which people are infected.
"There is a complacency ... a false sense of security and a false sense of calm," said Kevin Fenton, director of the national center for HIV/AIDS at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Fenton said, "Every 9 1/2 minutes, someone's mother, someone's daughter, someone's father, someone's friend is infected."
The campaign will initially target a group that nonprofit organizations overlooked for years as the disease spread: African Americans.
Black people make up slightly more than 12 percent of the population, but they represent nearly half of new HIV infections and nearly half of Americans living with the disease. One in 16 black men will be infected with HIV in their lifetime, along with 1 in 30 black women, according to the CDC.
"There are approximately 1.2 million people in the U.S. living with HIV/AIDS today. More than 300,000 of these individuals have never had an HIV test and therefore do not know their HIV status," said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
"A 45 million-dollar communications plan, no matter how well-intended, will do little to help identify those 300,000 infected individuals who may unknowingly be infecting others," Weinstein added.
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Editor:Yang Jie
