Groups Announce New Program to Stop AIDS Spread

Two Nevada advocacy groups have joined together to combat the continued increase in HIV infection among young gay men ages 18–29.

LGBTQ+ is a new integrated campaign sponsored by the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada and Aid for AIDS of Nevada.

The campaign integrates “Treatment as Prevention,” a new approach to halting HIV that could reduce the risk of transmission by as much as 96 percent and effectively stop the spread of HIV.

The program, which will reach out to its target demographic at community events, will focus on three steps to accomplish this mission: getting tested, seeking treatment, and staying in treatment.

Program organizers claimed HIV had lost focus in the news and needed to be brought to the forefront again. “The rate of HIV/AIDS among the heterosexual community has remained consistent, but within the homosexual community it has increased 22 percent,” said Tom Kovach, the community center’s interim executive director, “so it’s so important that we refocus energy, time, and resources back on the importance of ending the epidemic."