Petrelis Files

S.F. To Hold HIV Prevention Summit

Supervisor Bevan Dufty
City Hall
San Francisco, CA 94102

Dear Supervisor Dufty:

It pleases me no end that at the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club meeting on July 11, in response to my question about whether you would keep your pre-election promise to voters to organize and host a summit on HIV prevention programs, you said yes, the summit will happen before 2005 is over.

Now that you have agreed to hold the summit, I'd like to make some suggestions about the agenda for the summit.

As you know, the city and federal agencies spend millions annually on epidemiology tracking HIV, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and I think statistics must be a top priority of the summit.

Frequently, the department of public health's epidemiology clearly shows declines of these infections, yet health officials seem to go out of their way to not call attention to the falling numbers.

We need to address why the health department and its nonprofit HIV prevention partners don't publicize the statistics when they are dropping and demonstrate that prevention messages are working to stop new infections.

If the public and private health officials can spend time and money to shout to the press and gay community when HIV/AIDS/STD are climbing, then the officials should also be compelled to inform everyone of declines.

Right now, all HIV/AIDS/STD reports put out by the city reveal continuing falling numbers of new infections, yet not one word has been said about the declines by the health department and nonprofits. [1]

Actually, something about the declines was reported by the health department's head of HIV prevention, Steven Tierney, at the June meeting of the HIV Prevention Planning Council.

The minutes from that meeting report Tierney said, "Indications are that new epidemiology data will show promising trends indicating the [council's] efforts are succeeding."

The minutes also state, "This news was met with applause." [2]

So only those in attendance or read the minutes know that prevention messages are getting through to at-risk people and are effective, but the larger gay community and press remain ignorant about this wonderful development.

Kind of make me wonder if Tierney, the health department and nonprofits are either suppressing the declines or embarrassed to make the drops widely known.

In any event, please put HIV/AIDS/STD statistics; how they're gathered and counted, what they say about prevention programs, their impact on funding, high on your list of things to address at your HIV prevention summit.

I look forward to working with you in the coming months on making the summit a success that improves our HIV prevention messages and organizations.

Sincerely,
Michael Petrelis
San Francisco, CA

Sources:
1. SF DPH HIV/AIDS/STD reports
2. HPPC minutes , page 6.