Show More Love this National Women & Girls HIV & AIDS Awareness Day
March 10th marks the annual observance of National Women & Girls HIV & AIDS Awareness day. We wanted to take today to share the powerful story of CAP Client Jessica Gunn. Watch below as Jessica tells us about her experience as a mother and wife living with HIV and how accessing compassionate, affirming care is so integral to ensuring we all can live happy, healthy, loving lives.
In recent years, there has been notable progress inreducing HIV diagnoses among women in the US. From 2014 to 2018, HIV diagnoses decreased 7% among women overall, including a 10% decline among Black/African American women. While these numbers are encouraging, there is still much work to do to address gender and race-related disparities. In 2018, more than 7,000 women received an HIV diagnosis. Black/African American women made up 57% (4,097) of those diagnoses, followed by White women (21%; 1,491) and Hispanic/Latina women (18%; 1,269). Making the most of the full toolkit of HIV prevention and treatment strategies can raise awareness and help to prevent new HIV infections among women.
Many women without HIV can benefit from proven prevention options such as PrEP & PEP which can prevent HIV transmission when taken as directed. And women living with HIV should be offered treatment and the appropriate services that help people with HIV get in care, stay in care, and adhere to antiretroviral therapy (ART) so that they become undetectable, which not only helps create a greater quality of life but also prevents transmission of HIV to their sexual partners. Additionally, condoms provide protection for women regardless of status to prevent HIV, sexually transmitted diseases, and unplanned pregnancy. Yet, despite the promise of these tools to help end the HIV epidemic, they only work when the people who need them most can access them. Recent CDC data reveal that only 7% of women who could benefit from PrEP were prescribed PrEP. And many folks don’t even know PEP is a tool they have to take protect themselves.
To raise awareness about the many HIV prevention and treatment options for women, we encourage you to reach out to our CAP, Our House, and Prism Health teams. We have included some handy links below to quickly access the information for these services. By ensuring women have equal access to quality HIV prevention and care services, we can achieve health equity and end the HIV epidemic.
About Cascade AIDS Project
CAP is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1985 as a grassroots response to the AIDS crisis. As the oldest and largest community-based HIV services provider in Oregon and southwest Washington, we seek to support and empower all people with or affected by HIV, reduce stigma, and provide the LGBTQ+ community with compassionate healthcare. We do so by helping to ensure the health and well-being of our program participants each year through health, housing, and other social services. When the need for affordable, accessible, and culturally affirming primary care services was identified as a community need, we responded by opening Prism Health in 2017. More information can be found at www.capnw.org.
