It’s usually gay men who are the target of HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns, but a new one launching in New York this week is going after a particular group: black women.
The initiative comes from the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (which, of course, is launching a parallel campaign aimed at men-on-men) on the back of statistics that show new HIV diagnoses among black and Hispanic women and women aged 13-29 in NYC is on the rise, even though, city-wide, the number is decreasing (down 5 percent between ’05 and ’06).
Our one caveat: This looks to be yet another campaign that encourages testing, but doesn’t have any message for those who walk into a clinic and learn they’re actually infected. Perhaps we’ll just rely on HIV counselors to tell them their options?