(Proudly Cross-Posted at Clintonistas for Obama)

So, I was perusing the local news, and ran across a story about some new math coming out of the International AIDS Conference, currently being held in Mexico City.

CBS13 is reporting:

The country had roughly 56,300 new HIV infections in 2006 -- a dramatic increase from the 40,000 annual estimate used for the last dozen years.

While the CDC doesn't think that their "New Math" will dramatically increase the total projected number of infections in the US, they do feel it a failure in prevention efforts.

But some advocates complain that CDC's annual spending on HIV prevention in the United States has been held to roughly $700 million since 2001, while costs have risen. (That's about 3 percent of what the federal government spends on AIDS; much of the rest is on medicines, health care and research.)

This figure is VERY small, considering the total number of ASO's out there that are doing harm reduction programs.  We, as a society, need to drastically increase our investment in protecting our future generations from this epidemic.

While both Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama have signed onto the National AIDS Strategy, we need to hold their feet to the fire to ensure they keep their committment past this election cycle.  

That's why I'm proud to be working with the Campaign to End AIDS on their Stand Against AIDS action in Oxford, MS the 3 days leading up to the first Presidential Debate.  Sen. Obama's people will be attending a Town Hall meeting the day before the Debate with our participants, and the C2EA is working to get McSame's people there too. We're pretty sure, however, that McSame doesn't really care about AIDS in America .... just like the Bush Administration's current stance.

As y'all can see, this is a pet issue for me, as I am living with HIV.  Hopefully, the next administration will do more to help prevent the virus from spreading, and will work to shore up both continuing care for those of us with HIV/AIDS, and working even more agressively towards both a Therapeutic and Preventive Vaccine.

Just my 2 Cents - comments welcome

Dizzy