FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FROM THE WHITE HOUSE!
"On World Aids Day we remember the progress we've made and recommit ourselves to finishing the fight, remembering those lost along the way. We can eliminate HIV transmission.
We can get the epidemic under control in the U.S. and beyond.
Together, we can save lives."
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A Proclamation on World AIDS Day, 2023
On World AIDS Day, my message is simple: Let us finish the fight.
Since recognizing the first World AIDS Day 35 years ago, we have made enormous progress in preventing, detecting, and treating HIV — greatly reducing annual HIV diagnoses and transmission. But despite these advancements, about 39 million people continue to live with HIV, including more than one million people in the United States. Far too often, people living with HIV face discrimination that prevents them from accessing the care they need. So, as we reflect on our progress today, we must also come together to renew our promise to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
At home, my Administration has taken historic steps to achieve this goal. During my first year in office, I reestablished the White House Office of National AIDS Policy and launched a new National HIV/AIDS Strategy — a roadmap for using innovative community-driven solutions to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States by 2030. This year, my Administration also ended the disgraceful practice of banning gay and bis*xual men from donating blood. We continue to work with State and community leaders to repeal or reform so-called HIV criminalization laws, which wrongly punish people for exposing others to HIV. I have asked the Congress for $850 million for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative to aggressively reduce new HIV cases, fight the stigma that stops many people from getting care, and increase access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) — a critical drug that can help prevent the spread of HIV.
We are also focused on ending HIV/AIDS as a public health threat worldwide by 2030 under the bipartisan President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). PEPFAR has reduced transmissions, expanded testing, and saved more than 25 million lives in over 50 partner countries over the last two decades. Further, PEPFAR is focusing on forging a future where every HIV infection is prevented, every person has access to treatment, and every generation can live free from the stigma that too often surrounds HIV. My Administration is committed to working with the Congress to pass a clean PEPFAR reauthorization bill to extend this lifesaving bipartisan program for 5 years and end HIV/AIDS by 2030.
We are within striking distance of eliminating HIV-transmission. We have the science. We have the treatments. Most of all, we have each other. On this 35th World AIDS Day — let us honor all the families who have lost a loved one to this disease and all the people currently living with HIV/AIDS. Let us remember the activists, scientists, doctors, and caregivers who have never given up in the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Let us recommit to finishing this fight — together.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim December 1, 2023, as World AIDS Day. I urge the Governors of the United States and its Commonwealths and Territories, the appropriate officials of all units of government, and the American people to join the HIV community in activities to remember those who have lost their lives to AIDS and to provide support, dignity, and compassion to people with HIV.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-eighth.
JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.
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Statement by Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine on World AIDS Day
To observe World AIDS Day on December 1, Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine, MD, released the following statement:
“Today, on the 35th commemoration of World AIDS Day, and prompted by this year’s theme, World AIDS Day 35: Remember and Commit, we pause to remember the estimated 39 million individuals living with HIV around the world, including 1.2 million people here in the United States. We also remember the more than 40 million people worldwide who have died from HIV/AIDS since the start of the pandemic.”
“The Biden-Harris Administration continues to prioritize investments to accelerate an end to the HIV epidemic in the United States. In recent years, federal, state, and local governments, and community- and faith-based organizations, along with our private sector partners, have made important progress in implementing the National HIV/AIDS Strategy
https://www.hiv.gov/federal-response/natio... released by President Biden on World AIDS Day 2021. With support from HHS agencies, many partners in the communities most affected by HIV in the United States have been making progress implementing the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. initiative
https://www.hiv.gov/federal-response/endin... now a key component of our work to implement the Strategy.”
“For 20 years, the U.S. President’s Plan for Emergency AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has been one of our nation’s most profound transformational global investments, reaching thousands of communities with HIV prevention, care, and treatment services in 50 countries, saving more than 25 million lives and having enabled 5.5 million babies to be born HIV-free. But we cannot take PEPFAR’s success for granted, as losing the ground we have gained would have devastating consequences to people and their livelihoods around the world and in the United States.”
This World AIDS Day, as I join people and communities across the nation and around the globe in remembering those we have lost to AIDS-related illnesses and recognizing those with and experiencing risk for HIV, I recommit to accelerating our work to end the HIV epidemic.”
For information on where to find HIV services in your community, please visit the HIV.gov service locator. On the website
https://locator.hiv.gov/, you may also read more about the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and HHS’ Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. initiative.
https://www.hiv.gov/federal-response/endin... VISIT: HIV.GOV
Posted By: agnes levine
Friday, December 1st 2023 at 2:10PM
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