Petrelis Files

Do SF People With AIDS Need NYC's ACRIA?

(ACRIA consultants Cesar Angel, left, and Hanna Tessema, held a forum in San Francisco on Nov. 14. Photo credit: Rick Gerharter.)

There are a few questions in need of answers regarding the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America, why they recently sent two consultants to San Francisco and how to locate their body of research and findings on the web. This note was sent to ACRIA folks today and when I hear back from them, I'll write a new post:

Hello Hanna and Cesar,

I was unable to make your visit forum at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, so I'm following up with written questions about it and ACRIA's purpose in coming here.

You should check out Matthew Bajko's article in the BAR, http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=70186 , because it's really all I know about your forum.

1. Why did ACRIA fly you and Cesar Angel to San Francisco to chat with longterm AIDS survivors? Maybe you were invited by leaders of the Let's Kiss ASS group, and if so, lemme know.

2. How much did ACRIA spend for travel, hotel, renting a room at the center, the catered lunch and all other expenses to have you two come here?

3. Who are ACRIA's primary funders, how much have you received in the past four years from Gilead and did any drug company pay for this trip in part or whole?

4. What exactly is involved with these trainings you're putting on around the country and how will they potentially benefit a longterm PWA such as myself?

5. Why do we supposedly need ACRIA coming from NYC to host such a forum and take an interest in alleged non-cooperation between AIDS and aging groups?

6. What agreement was made between ACRIA and Let's Kick ASS for forum, what other ways are they partnered with each other and how can I obtain the written MOU between the groups?

7. At the BAR site, this comment was made by Mike Wonders:

"We have a New York based group coming out here to tell help us figure out what to do. It's all about funding the professional AIDS machine. We have endless focus groups, surveys, research, meetings, consultants, seminars, paid travel to national conferences etc"

How do you respond to his thinking, which I've heard other SF PWAs express about both ACRIA and leaders of Let's Kick Ass.

8. Your page about aging PWAs and depression, http://www.acria.org/depression-research , contains no links to any of the research or findings, even though it all began in 2007. Can you provide me any links to the actual research or findings? The page also says you're in the process of publishing results. Please inform of which scientific journal will soon publish these results and when.

9. There are no links to any of the results of ACRIA drug research in the past year posted at this page: http://www.acria.org/research-results . Please provide me with links to all of the results and also consider linking to the results at that page.

10. Your only study on your site is the ROAH Report, https://www.dropbox.com/s/2mhuk7xcynqurhd/ROAH%20Report%20Final.pdf , and it's from 2006. Why is this old study the only one on ACRIA's site? Also, financial disclosure about any funding from drug companies or other outside sources that underwrote the study, along with disclosure on the part of the researchers were omitted. Why the omissions?

11. Finally, are you or Cesar either HIV poz or over 50 or both? It's important to ask these questions to give me a better and fuller understanding of your backgrounds.

Please give me your answers in the coming days. Thanks.