AIDS activists and Washington, D.C.-area students will be chanting “Puerto Rico AIDS Crisis, Save Lives Now” and handing out informational fliers at a vociferous legal picket outside the “Friends of Puerto Rico” Holiday Reception on December 12 at the National Geographic Society at 1145 17th St. NW from 6 pm to 9 pm. (This information is embargoed until 6pm on December 12)

The holiday party is being thrown by the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration and is sponsored by Rums of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican Tourism Bureau. The picket is the latest in a series of activist measures intended to pressure the Puerto Rican government into taking immediate action to address the island’s escalating AIDS crisis.

Organizations participating in the picket include D.C. Fights Back (dcfightsback.org), the Campaign to End AIDS (c2ea.org), Housing Works (housingworks.org), ACT UP Philadelphia (http://www.critpath.org/actup/), Latino Commission on AIDS (latinoaids.org) and student groups from American, Howard and George Washington Universities.

The groups picketing demand immediate federal control of AIDS funding in Puerto Rico; an independent authority to investigate the mismanagement and come up with a plan to end it; and immediate action to provide HIV prevention tools to IV drug users, who account for the majority of new infections in Puerto Rico. The picket follows a series of grassroots events in November with the same goals, including a civil disobedience action outside the Federal Building in New York City and phone and fax zaps of the offices of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, Puerto Rico Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá and San Juan Mayor Jorge Santini-Padilla.

More than 30,000 people in Puerto Rico have HIV/AIDS, and more than 19,000 Puerto Ricans have died from AIDS. Since 2006, AIDS services and treatment in Puerto Rico have been crippled by neglect and criminal activity.

• Audit after audit by the federal government of millions in U.S. tax dollars has documented Puerto Rico’s failure to provide basic care to people with HIV/AIDS.

• In December, the FBI raided four San Juan Health Department offices, freezing millions in U.S. Ryan White CARE Act funds intended to help people with HIV/AIDS.

• The Puerto Rican Health Department claims there is no longer an AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) waiting list for medications, but advocates have documented hundreds of people who are still waiting to receive medications on which their lives depend.

• The U.S. Office of the Inspector General has recently said that the Puerto Rican Department of Health may have to return $28 million in federal AIDS funding due to mismanagement.

HHS Secretary Leavitt has the power to instruct the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the division of HHS that oversees HIV/AIDS in all U.S. states and territories, to take over the dispersal of millions in Ryan White CARE Act funds in Puerto Rico. HRSA has taken such action in U.S cities such as Washington, D.C, Baltimore and Orlando. In response to last month’s protest in New York City, HRSA has said that the Puerto Rican government must voluntarily give up control of its AIDS funding, but in the past HRSA has threatened to cut off funding to cities that refused to do so.

To learn more, visit The New York Times and the Housing Works AIDS Issues Update for in-depth articles about the HIV/AIDS crisis in Puerto Rico.

HOUSING WORKS is dedicated to fighting the twin crises of HIV/AIDS and homelessness. We are the largest grassroots AIDS organization in the U.S. and the largest minority-controlled AIDS organization in the U.S. We provide housing, medical care, job training, case management, HIV prevention, counseling and testing, and other services to low-income and homeless New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS.

World AIDS Day, observed December 1 each year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection. AIDS has killed more than 25 million people, with an estimated 38.6 million people living with HIV, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history. Despite recent, improved access to antiretroviral treatment and care in many regions of the world, the AIDS epidemic claimed an estimated 3.1 million (between 2.8 and 3.6 million) lives in 2005 of which, more than half a million (570,000) were children.

The concept of a World AIDS Day originated at the 1988 World Summit of Ministers of Health on Programmes for AIDS Prevention. Since then, it has been taken up by governments, international organizations and charities around the world.

From its inception until 2004, UNAIDS spearheaded the World AIDS Day campaign, choosing annual themes in consultation with other global health organizations. In 2005 this responsibility was turned over to World AIDS Campaign (WAC), who chose Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise as the main theme for World AIDS Day observences through 2010, with more specific sub-taglines chosen annually. This theme is not specific to World AIDS Day, but is used year-round in WAC’s efforts to highlight HIV/AIDS awareness within the context of other major global events including the G8 Summit. World AIDS Campaign also conducts “in-country” campaigns throughout the world, like the Student Stop AIDS Campaign, an infection-awareness campaign targeting young people throughout the UK.
World AIDS Day banner, European Commission building, Brussels
World AIDS Day banner, European Commission building, Brussels
A 67 m long “condom” on the Obelisk of Buenos Aires, Argentina, part of an awareness campaign for the 2005 World AIDS Day
A 67 m long “condom” on the Obelisk of Buenos Aires, Argentina, part of an awareness campaign for the 2005 World AIDS Day

It is common to hold memorials to honor persons who have died from HIV/AIDS on this day. Government and health officials also observe, often with speeches or forums on the AIDS topics. Since 1995 the President of the United States has made an official proclamation on World AIDS Day. Governments of other nations have followed suit and issued similar announcements.

At a press conference preceding the traffic-stopping protest, activists demanded immediate federal control of AIDS funding in Puerto Rico in order to get medical care and HIV prevention to those in need. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt has the power to instruct the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the division of HHS that oversees HIV/AIDS in all U.S. states and territories, to take over the dispersal of millions in Ryan White CARE Act funds in Puerto Rico. HRSA has taken such action in U.S cities such as Washington, D.C, Baltimore and Orlando. So far HRSA has refused to get involved in Puerto Rico.

Activists also want an independent authority to investigate the mismanagement of Puerto Rican AIDS dollars and a plan to end it and immediate action to provide HIV prevention tools to IV drug users, who account for the majority of new infections in Puerto Rico.

Housing Works, UDCAS New York, CitiWide Harm Reduction, Harm Reduction Coalition, New York City AIDS Housing Network, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, Washington Heights CORNER Project and ACT UP Philly all endorsed the protest and press conference.

Today’s action in New York was only one of various efforts to put pressure on the federal government. On Tuesday, November 13 Housing Works, the Latino Commission on AIDS, the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project, UDCAS NY and UDCAS Puerto Rico collaborated on a phone zap targeting Puerto Rican Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá and San Juan City Mayor, Jorge Santini Padilla.

More than 30,000 people in Puerto Rico have HIV/AIDS, and more than 19,000 Puerto Ricans have died from AIDS-related causes.

To learn more, visit The New York Times Link and the Housing Works AIDS Issues Update for in-depth articles about the HIV/AIDS crisis in Puerto Rico.

HOUSING WORKS is dedicated to fighting the twin crises of HIV/AIDS and homelessness. We are the largest grassroots AIDS organization in the U.S. and the largest minority-controlled AIDS organization in the U.S. We provide housing, medical care, job training, case management, HIV prevention, counseling and testing, and other services to low-income and homeless New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS.

Please support AIDS Programs of the National Minority AIDS Council CFC #10557 Link

Link to New York Times Article