World AIDS Day 2015: A Focus on Community Engagement

At this year’s World AIDS Day, the San Francisco Getting to Zero coalition gathered for a town hall, to go over the progress they’ve made since last year and to discuss upcoming steps in San Francisco’s efforts to get to 0 new HIV infections, 0 HIV-related deaths, and 0 HIV-related stigma by 2020. The coalition uses a collective impact model, which brings together a wide range of stakeholders around a common agenda. Additionally, for San Francisco’s efforts against HIV, the role of the community is crucial and always has been.

Since the emergence of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) as an HIV prevention tool, there is a lot of energy around getting the word out about PrEP to both users and providers, and to push for easy access to PrEP for those who want it. The update to the National HIV/AIDS Strategy includes PrEP as key part of HIV prevention. Additionally, the World Health Organization recently updated its guidelines for HIV prevention to include PrEP and rapid antiretroviral therapy, both aspects that are central pillars of San Francisco’s Getting to Zero initiative.

Take a listen to the audio piece below to find out more about where San Francisco is with Getting to Zero, the role that PrEP plays in that effort, and the integral part the community plays in advancing HIV prevention.

 

Interested in more about how your health department can work on Getting to Zero in your community? Contact us. As part of a national network of capacity building assistance providers, the San Francisco Department of Public Health can support your HIV prevention efforts, including PrEP implementation, rapid ART, and increasing community engagement. We’re available to provide any type of assistance that would best suit you–whether that’s an exchange of information, offering trainings or technical assistance.