HRC Concerned By Administration's Cut In Aids Prevention Funding As Cases Rise For First Time In Decade

The Human Rights Campaign expressed concern on February 13th regarding
a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that shows the
number of diagnosed AIDS cases in the United States is up for the first
time since 1993. The report was released in Boston at the 10th
Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.

Although the increase is only 1 percent, it comes at a time when
the Bush administration is cutting money for effective, comprehensive
prevention programs and sanctioning scientifically unproven
"abstinence-until-marriage" sex education that threatens to further
increase the number of people contracting HIV, says HRC.

"While the CDC says this rise is statistically insignificant,
these disturbing statistics show that we must not retreat, but redouble
our efforts to fight this disease by providing comprehensive prevention
programs," said HRC Political Director Winnie Stachelberg. "We urge the
administration to take politics out of prevention and fully fund
science-based solutions that are proven to save lives."

The CDC's report also showed a 14 percent increase in new HIV
infections among gay men between 1999 and 2001. There are now as many as
950,000 people in the United States who are HIV positive, with 40,000
Americans being infected each year.

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