WASHINGTON, D.C. — North Carolina U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan (D) will co-host a congressional roundtable on HIV/AIDS on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. The event, presented by the D.C.-based group AIDS United, seeks to bring a focus to the continued spread of HIV/AIDS in the South, according to an article in USA Today.
The group and its congressional allies want to raise awareness of the problem, including highlights on prevention efforts and a severe lack of HIV specialists across the region. Hagan is joined as co-host by Alabama’s Sen. Jeff Sessions (R) and U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Hank Johnson (D-Ga.).
“This disease is no longer a metropolitan problem,” Sessions told USA Today. “In fact, infection rates in the rural South are among the fastest-growing in the country.”
The focus on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment has been at the forefront of many North Carolinians minds since the state’s initial funding crisis for the AIDS drug assistance program in 2010.
Currently, a small group of four AmeriCorps volunteers working in tandem with AIDS United and the North Carolina Community AIDS Fund, are working to raise awareness on HIV prevention. They’ve released a trailer for a forthcoming full-length public service announcement. You can watch the video below or at their website where you can also learn more about the film’s participants.
