“We hope other jurisdictions will follow suit”. The program gives credit to the thousands of people in San Francisco that contribute in different ways to the initiative: from doctors to organizations, recognizing them as the citizens that raise awareness on sexuality and prevention, and that are willing to go under an HIV test and accept the treatment if they need it.
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In total, with all programs and initiatives, San Francisco is set to spend, only in this year, $54 million on prevention, treatment and research to bring the HIV statistics to zero. Despite the diseases having alike death tolls, public health professionals and scientists confronting tuberculosis don’t have enough resources as their allies who are fighting HIV/AIDS.
The first is getting people with HIV into antiretroviral treatment much faster, sometimes the same day they’re diagnosed.
“If anyone can do it, San Francisco can do it”, said Supervisor David Campos. An additional $500,000 will be donated by the MAC AIDS Fund, the cosmetics company’s longtime HIV/AIDS charity.
Under the city’s proposal, social welfare centres that offer treatment now to HIV patients would be classified as satellite health facilities of district general hospitals. “We can, in our lifetime, end this epidemic for everyone”.
Dr. Mario Raviglione, the Director of the Global TB Program at World Health Organization said that even though there were gains, the progress which was made against tuberculosis is anything but sufficient.
As of June, there are 16,104 San Francisco residents living with HIV infection, according to the Department of Public Health.
Nevertheless, the existing interventions against TB have helped save more than 40 million people in 15 years since 2000.
Tran Thi Phung of the Niem Tin community-based organisation (CBO), which provides healthcare and counselling to HIV patients, said that many women and children chose to stay at home or work as casual labourers because of poor health. Viral suppression is lowest in women (including transgender women), African Americans, 13-24 year olds, and people who inject drugs.
Health officials from Paris and Amsterdam visited San Francisco recently to study the city’s program, in anticipation of the drug getting licensed in Europe. “Additional strategic investments, continuous innovation and the Consortium’s community based collective impact approach can make San Francisco the first jurisdiction to realize UNAIDS Getting to Zero objectives”.
San Francisco fights back against HIV in a continuous effort to become the first city to have the number of new infections or deaths caused by the virus down to zero.
“They can’t afford to buy health insurance cards for themselves, which cost VND600,000-700,000 ($27-31) each”.
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A group of northern Saskatchewan organizations has launched a campaign created to address HIV/AIDS in the region.
