Events

12/01/2006

The Westchester County Department of Health will be holding its annual conference on December 13th in observance of World AIDS Day 2006. The conference, entitled “A New Look at Public Health Practice in a Time of Shifting HIV Priorities”, will be held at the Maryknoll Center at 55 Ryder Road in Ossining from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm.

The focus of the conference will be to discuss new strategies for increasing access to HIV testing, such as integrating HIV testing into routine primary care so more individuals will know whether or not they are infected with HIV. Those who are aware that they have been infected with HIV are more likely to receive needed care and to take preventive measures to avoid infecting others. However, many with HIV are unaware of their status.

“Westchester County has more residents living with AIDS than any of the 57 counties in New York State, outside of New York City,” said Joshua Lipsman, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., Commissioner of Health for Westchester County. “World AIDS Day is an opportunity to pause and take stock of where we are in the effort to combat AIDS and determine whether priorities need to be reconfigured.”

Westchester County also has the highest number of people living with HIV of any New York county outside of New York City. In terms of percentage of the population, Westchester ranks second highest for the number of people living with AIDS and fourth highest for the number of people living with HIV excluding New York City. There are currently more than 2,200 people living with AIDS in Westchester and more than 900 additional residents reported to be infected with HIV who do not have AIDS. However, it is estimated that these figures represent only about 75 percent of those with HIV. The remaining 25 percent are unaware that they are HIV-infected. Thus, there are a total of over 4,200 people estimated living with AIDS and HIV in Westchester.

Although there have been new technologies brought to the fight against AIDS, such as a rapid HIV test and new treatments that have slowed the progression of HIV to AIDS, the disease remains an epidemic at large. The World Health Organizations reports that about 40 million people worldwide are living with HIV and the number is continuing to rise in all regions. There is still no cure and no vaccine.

World AIDS Day was established by the World Health Organization on December 1st, 1988 to address the growing pandemic that has now claimed millions of lives. The Westchester County Health Department’s World AIDS Day conference last year drew approximately 170 attendees representing community-based organizations, the medical community, and HIV service providers. A similar number of attendees is expected at this years event, which will be free of charge. Breakfast and lunch will be provided to attendees. Confirmed speakers at the event include Ron Bayer, a professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and Bebe Anderson of Lambda Legal, a nationwide civil liberties advocacy group for the LGBT community.

For more information or to register for the World Aids Day Conference, please contact the Westchester County Department of Health at (914) 813-5266 or email yay1@westchestergov.com. Please also visit the Health Department website at www.westchestgov.com/health.