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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media
Contact:
Ron Harris
Director of Communications
202.683.0182
rjharris@howard.edu |
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Hundreds
Gather at Howard University for International HIV-Stigma Conference
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| Howard
University President Sidney A. Ribeau (from left) greets Congresswoman
Eleanor Holmes Norton, Eve Higginbotham, senior vice president and
executive dean for Health Sciences at Howard; Dr. Suniti Solomon,
founder-director of the Y.R. Gaitonde Center for AIDS Research and
Education in Chennai, India, and Miss America Caressa Cameron at the
start of the first international conference on HIV-related stigma
and its impact on the spread of the disease |
WASHINGTON
(Dec. 10) – In spite of the rain and overcast skies,
nearly 500 people from across the nation and the globe gathered for
the first international conference on HIV-related stigma on World
AIDS Day at Howard University.
Doctors, other health care clinicians, elected officials, people with
HIV/AIDS and scientists from as far away as India gathered Dec. 1
in Cramton Auditorium for “International Conference on HIV-Related
Stigma: The Attitude that Spreads HIV,” where participants discussed
the impact and remedies to the stigma attached to the disease.
The conference was hosted by Howard University Hospital, Howard University
Health Sciences and the Coalition to Eliminate AIDS-related Stigma.
A variety of speakers, including Washington, D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor
Holmes Norton, Miss America Caressa Cameron, Gregorio Millett, the
senior policy advisor in on HIV/AIDS policy at the White House, and
Dr. Suniti Solomon, founder-director of the Y.R. Gaitonde Center for
AIDS Research and Education in Chennai, India, spoke about the importance
of battling stigma and its role in spreading HIV/AIDS.
The conference, which was Webcast by the World Health Organization
to thousands across the Western Hemisphere, also featured Dr.Sohail
Rana, HIV/AIDS specialist at Howard University hospital; Willo Pequegnat,
Ph.D., author of Working with Families in the Era of HIV/AIDS and
co-editor of Community Interventions and AIDS, and Jeff Johnson, political
analyst and journalist for BET News.
Dr. Rafael Mazin, regional advisor for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Comprehensive
Care for the Pan American Health Organization, and others led discussions
on “
Being Both Gay and at Risk for HIV,” “HIV-related Stigma
in Health Care and Its Impact on Families” and “How Stigma
and Lack of Disclosure Fuel this Cruel Disease.”
Other
workshops covered “Faith,
Spirituality, and HIV: Barriers and Facilitators to HIV Prevention,”
“Criminalization of HIV”and “Stigma; Effect on Youth
and Families.” Panelists
with HIV gave testimonies about how they had struggled with the stigma
attached to the disease and members of the audience also spoke about
their own difficulties with friends and family because of the stigma
related to HIV.
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