National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

Statement by Dr. Kenneth Moritsugu Deputy Surgeon General U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Regarding National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, May 19, 2005

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is pleased to support the first annual National Asian and Pacific Islander (API) HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, which will take place on May 19, 2005. This observance was created to raise awareness about the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS in API communities.

HHS has developed a number of resources to support this effort, including a Web site (omhrc.gov/hivaidsobservances/api) which provides information on HIV/AIDS, as well as a media tool kit to help local groups organize and publicize their own API Awareness Day events. The site also links to the Banyan Tree Project (banyantreeproject.org), a national effort to eliminate HIV/AIDS-related discrimination and stigma in API communities.

As an Asian American physician, I am keenly aware of the danger that HIV/AIDS poses to the API community. HIV/AIDS is a growing problem -- the number of APIs living with AIDS in the United States has increased by more than 10 percent in each of the last five years. Like many other minorities, APIs may face cultural, economic, and language barriers that make HIV prevention, care, and treatment efforts more difficult. API HIV/AIDS Awareness Day challenges us to eliminate these barriers.

To meet that challenge, HHS is enlarging the scope of the fight against HIV/AIDS by:

• Ensuring that federal resources get to where they are needed;
• Mobilizing community leaders, including civic, faith, and public health officials;
• Promoting abstinence for those who are not in committed, monogamous relationships, and encouraging young people to delay their first sexual activity;
• Encouraging those who engage in high-risk behaviors to use condoms correctly and consistently;
• Promoting HIV testing as a routine part of medical care;
• Working to improve health literacy, so that all Americans can effectively access, understand, and use health-related information and services; and Advancing medical research on the treatment of HIV/AIDS.

President Bush has demonstrated his own commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS by supporting the reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act, which funds primary health care and support services for people living with HIV/AIDS. For 2005, the HHS budget includes a $35 million increase in CARE Act funds to purchase drug treatments for low-income patients living with HIV/AIDS.

National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is an opportunity to educate, motivate, and mobilize people nationwide to fight HIV/AIDS. For more information about HIV/AIDS, contact the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National AIDS Hotline at 1–800–342–AIDS (2437).

### SOURCE: United States Department of Health and Human Services

News Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, May 13, 2005 Contact: HHS Press Office(202) 690-6343