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ViiV Healthcare expands Positive Action Southern Initiative to fight HIV/AIDS and support community action
Commitment to the Hard-hit Southern U.S. Continues - Letters of Interest Now Open for Organizations in Two Additional States, Texas and Virginia
Research Triangle Park, NC - February 4, 2013 - ViiV Healthcare
today announced that it will expand the Positive Action Southern Initiative to two additional states and issued a new request for letters of interest (LOIs). First established in 2010, the Positive
Action Southern Initiative is a collaborative, community-focused program that focuses on linking people living with HIV into care and/or
enhancing their treatment adherence and delaying disease progression. With today's announcement, the Positive Action Southern
Initiative will have committed over $2.5M towards funding grass-roots projects designed to address local gaps in care and
services for people living with or at risk for HIV/AIDS in this hard-hit region.
"We've seen firsthand the positive impact of directing resources to where they are most needed, and supporting
grass-roots organizations that understand the local dynamics that influence the HIV/AIDS epidemic in their communities,"
said Bill Collier, Head of North America, ViiV Healthcare. "Based on the encouraging results achieved during the
earlier phases of the Positive Action Southern Initiative, as well as the continued urgent need to support the
HIV community in the Southern United States, we are proud to again expand this important program."
This latest expansion will bring the program's mission of reducing disparities in HIV/AIDS care and treatment among
disproportionately-affected African-American and Latino populations to a total of 10 Southern states- Alabama,
Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
In addition to extending the Positive Action Southern Initiative into Texas and Virginia, ViiV
Healthcare also announced that next month it will be issuing new Requests for Proposals
(RFPs) to current network members in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
The initiative reflects the White House National HIV/AIDS Strategy, which prioritizes directing resources to areas and
populations that have the greatest need. The Southern United States is disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS,
representing 45 percent of all new AIDS diagnoses[i], with new infection rates highest among African-American,
followed by Latino populations. In 2010, 43 percent of all HIV/AIDS diagnoses in Texas were among
African-Americans, and 32 percent were among Latinos.[ii] Texas also had the 4th highest number
of AIDS diagnoses in the United States during 2010[iii]. In the same year in Virginia,
64 percent of all HIV/AIDS diagnoses were among African-Americans and 8 percent were
among Latinos (note that 4.7 percent of the total population of Virginia is
Latino).[ii], [iv] Through the Positive Action Southern Initiative,
selected organizations that work to tackle these disparities and
their root causes will be awarded up to $50,000 per year for a
provisional commitment over the next two years.
"The HIV/AIDS crisis in the South is a real one, and it needs to be addressed before the problem gets worse," said Dázon
Dixon Diallo, Executive Director of SisterLove, Inc. "The Positive Action Southern Initiative represents an important
part of the solution, as it fosters necessary collaboration among the HIV community and establishes effective
partnerships. Tangible results of the program have already been observed within the communities it serves,
and the expansion of this support to Texas and Virginia is critical to effecting change for the most
at-risk populations in these areas."
The Southern Initiative is part of the broader Positive Action program that has empowered community organizations in Africa,
Europe, Latin America, and Asia. ViiV Healthcare is committed to building on the success of the global program with efforts
to support projects in the United States that address areas of greatest need.
Southern Initiative Application Process
The latest phase of the program focuses on supporting African-American and Latino populations in Texas and Virginia, and
is dedicated to helping individuals living with HIV and providing linkages to care and treatment adherence. Priority will
be given to projects that address gaps in services.
The funds are intended to support existing, innovative programs with strategic support of program enhancements, such as:
- Adding mental health counseling to an existing, successful Comprehensive Risk Counseling Services (CRCS) program
- Adding linguistically and culturally appropriate resources (e.g., a Spanish-speaking staff member and materials) for adherence education and counseling
- Training staff to focus on issues related to clients who have been incarcerated and funding an ongoing support group for the formerly incarcerated to address linkages to care
- Training staff in "motivational interviewing" to enhance skills and providing innovative incentives to further motivate high-risk clients to stay adherent
- Supporting efforts to address disparities and linkages to care among African-American and Latino gay men
Five Additional Partner Grants
The grants provided by ViiV Healthcare will cover a two year period and each of the following five organisations will focus on a unique
activity or geographic region:
- amfAR's Treat Asia Programme will identify gaps in paediatric HIV research and training, and highlight issues and direct interventions in order to impact broader paediatric and adolescent HIV communities in Asia;
- Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) will continue current efforts to improve access in three existing pilot sites in Malawi. The projects will focus on better understanding of key gaps in care and testing potential solutions, with the aim of increasing access to early infant diagnosis and treatment services through pilot programmes in new districts;
- JUSTRI - the Training Resource Initiative will partner with experts in Romania, UK and Eastern Europe to develop and lead a consortium to coordinate an observational, cross-sectional and longitudinal follow up children living with HIV;
- International AIDS Society (IAS) will promote paediatric HIV research with the aim to optimise the quality of treatment and care services for children affected by HIV in resource-limited settings;
- Mater Misericordiae University Hospital will develop a consortium of stakeholders to lead an observational cross-sectional two year follow up of 2,000 HIV infected children, 1,500 of whom are currently treated at outpatient clinics in the city of East London, Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.
Submitting an Initial Letter of Interest
Interested parties can receive detailed information about the two-phase proposal process and download an application form at http://www.viivhealthcare.com/community/positive-action-program/our-programmes/us-southern-lnitiative.aspx .
Questions will be publicly answered in the FAQ document located on the website. Additional questions about the process should be directed to positiveaction@viivhealthcare.com. Letters of Interest must be received by March 15, 2013, 5:00 p.m. EST for consideration to the full proposal phase.
All applicants invited to submit full proposals will be considered Network Finalists. Finalists will be invited to be a part of the ViiV Healthcare Positive Action Southern Initiative Network. Some of the Network activities include invitations to attend Southern Initiative networking meetings and related events, such as the United States Conference on AIDS (USCA). Organizations awarded grants will be notified in August. Programs receiving grant awards will be posted on the ViiV Healthcare website and, where possible, learnings and insights gained from the projects will be broadly shared.
About ViiV Healthcare's Positive Action Program
When Positive Action was created in 1992 it was the first pharmaceutical company program of its kind to support communities affected by HIV and AIDS. The program targets its funds towards community-focused projects that reach those most affected by HIV, particularly in marginalized or vulnerable populations. These include youth, women and girls, sex workers, injection drug users, MSM, the incarcerated, transgender individuals, and gay men. Positive Action works to build capacity in these communities to enable them to tackle stigma and discrimination, to test innovations in education, care and treatment, and to deliver greater and meaningful involvement of people living with HIV.
For more information about Positive Action, please visit: www.viivhealthcareeffect.com.
About ViiV Healthcare
ViiV Healthcare is a global specialist HIV company established in November 2009 by GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE)
dedicated to delivering advances in treatment and care for people living with HIV. Shionogi joined as a 10% shareholder in
October 2012. The company's aim is to take a deeper and broader interest in HIV/AIDS than any company has done before
and take a new approach to deliver effective and new HIV medicines, as well as support communities affected by HIV.
For more information on the company, its management, portfolio, pipeline and commitment,
please visit www.viivhealthcare.com
Contact:
US Media Inquiries:
Marc Meachem
(919) 483 8756
Reproduced with permission - "ViiV Healthcare"
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