AIDS Activists Flunk New York City Health Care Services

D. D-minus. F.

Those are the grades that HIV and AIDS advocates gave to New York City’s health care services.

To mark President Obama’s 50th day in office on Wednesday, March 11, AIDS and HIV prevention advocates from around the country issued a health care report card grading the nation’s progress in finding a cure for the epidemic. The “End AIDS Report Card,” compiled by the activist organization Campaign To End AIDS, failed the city across the board on the services such as housing and medication distribution.

“We need a national strategy to end AIDS,” said Charles King, CEO of Housing Works. “Twenty five years into the epidemic and we still don’t have a coherent national strategy on prevention or on treatment services and care. There has to be a strategy that involves every single state and every single locality doing its fair share.”

New Yorkers gather in Harlem in front of a statue of civil rights advocate, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., to protest what they call a failing city health care system.

Go to NYC On Deadline to read the rest of the report, view video coverage and listen to interviews.

NATIONAL: Gates Funding Olympics Smoking Ban, Raise Worldwide Awareness

(previously published here at www.thebulletin.us)

By: Heather J. Chin, The Bulletin

07/29/2008

The effect of smoking and tobacco on people's health is well known in America, but the World Health Organization (WHO) still estimates that in the next 20 years, eight million people will die each year, with one billion dying worldwide in the next century. Today, 5.4 million deaths are attributed to smoking each year - more than tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS combined.

With statistics like these in mind, tech billionaire Bill Gates has earmarked $130,000 from his foundation to support a "smoke-free Olympics" through advertisements in an anti-smoking campaign. Beijing has pledged a smoke-free Games, banning smoking from most indoor public spaces, workplaces and spectator areas of open-air stadiums.

The Wednesday announcement came at a press conference where the retired Microsoft co-founder expressed his desire to use funds from his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to spread awareness of the dangerous effects of smoking to people living outside the United States, where this health issue is more prevalent.

China's Ministry of Health cites a one-million-a-year death toll from smoking-related issues, and the WHO says medical costs from smoking also impoverish more than 50 million people.

The funds and campaign in China is part of a larger international initiative by the Gates Foundation to invest $125 million over the next five years to cut rates of tobacco use in China and India, as well as stemming a tobacco epidemic in Africa. The Gates Foundation has collaborated with China's Health Ministry on other public health campaigns, including HIV prevention.

Mr. Gates and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg also announced plans to contribute a combined total of $500 million through their respective foundations toward anti-smoking awareness campaigns, to include efforts to raise tobacco taxes and ban smoking in public places. Mr. Bloomberg's foundation will contribute $250 million over four years, on top of a previous pledge of $125 million.

According to the American Lung Association, second-hand smoke can cause or exacerbate serious health problems, such as cancer, respiratory infections and asthma in both children and adults. It causes approximately 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 22,700 to 69,000 heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers every year.


Heather J. Chin can be reached at hchin@thebulletin.us

©The Evening Bulletin 2008