Petrelis Files

CDC's Gay HIV Chief MIA at Toronto; Bush's AIDS Silence

The name Dr. Kevin Fenton should ring a bell for you. He's the openly gay black man who heads the CDC's division of HIV and STD prevention, but to judge from the dearth of news articles, only one, and blog mentions, zero citations and I used two blog search engines, Google's and Technorati's, he may not have used the just-concluded 16th international AIDS conference in Toronto to his full advantage.

I want whoever is running CDC's HIV prevention programs to really put himself or herself out there at the biennial meetings, where so many are gathered to learn from and teach the CDC. One way to reach not just the participants who went to Toronto, but people with AIDS and activists who, like me, didn't attend but nonetheless monitored what was happening and blogged about it all, is through the mainstream media and blogosphere. It's not rocket science figuring out ongoing communication from CDC to AIDS activists and professtionals.

And it's not as though Dr. Fenton himself would have to personally send out a release or establish a blog to reach and engage an audience that wants leadership from him. He has the enormous CDC press operations to get press and blog attention, and he should have done better in this regard last week.

Reading news accounts and blog postings about the minimal focus on gay prevention needs over all and particularly for black gay men at Toronto, I wondered why he didn't use his powerful position to guarantee gay black issues were on everyone's agenda? Does he not know how to use his federally-funded bully pulpit to reach under-served audiences at-risk of HIV infection?

And let's not overlook the fact Dr. Fenton was born in Jamaica, a country hard-hit by HIV and a rampant violent homophobia that has directly contributed not only to the murders of gay HIV prevention workers there, but also to the soaring rates of infections in the Caribbean nation. Would have been nice of him to have organized a panel or event on the matters facing gay men in Jamaica today in staying alive and not contracting HIV, or living with it if they are positive.

Okay, now that I've addressed some of the identity-politics aspects incumbent to Dr. Fenton and his performance on the world stage last week, I want to broaden the frame a bit. Putting aside those aspects, I'm still left with an overwhelming sense of a dangerous low-key approach on his part to raising any of the CDC's HIV prevention agenda and messages for everyone at Toronto, not just targeting gays and blacks.

We need the person directing CDC's prevention work to use traditional and new web media to reduce HIV rates, engage a wide spectrum of people and to do a better job of informing not just the AIDS community, but all of the American public about his efforts.

For whatever reason, the CDC's media office had a muted press strategy at Toronto, unlike previous conferences where CDC really milked the many media opportunities at any AIDS conference. If Google and the CDC's press office web page are any indication, the agency didn't put out a single release, make it known how to contact CDC officials or stage any news briefings.

At the same time, I wish to point out that Dr. Fenton's ultimate boss, President George Bush, was also quiet about AIDS last week, or at least the White House web site's AIDS page had nothing about the Toronto meeting and its stated goals, much of which involve the a big portion of the U.S. government. The Office of National AIDS Policy page was last updated in February.

Why have such an office in the White House advising the president, with no clear activities for seven months, and at minimum send a message from the Oval Office to the attendees at the conference, maybe even announce new funding streams to combat AIDS and assist those living with HIV?

I'm not suggesting that Bush tear himself away from battling terror and spreading democracy in the Middle East and make a video welcome for Toronto, or perhaps hold a cabinet meeting on AIDS while the conference is underway, but please, something, anything other than SILENCE on White House site and from the president and his top-level staff is necessary to ensure AIDS doesn't fade from the public's agenda.