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BALTIMORE, MD. (June 13, 2012) – Today, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake joined City health officials in unveiling a new media campaign, Status Update, urging disproportionately affected groups to get tested for HIV. The Status Update campaign features local African American gay and bisexual men challenging others to learn their HIV status with the playful tagline, “Have balls. Get tested.”
African American men who have sex with men (MSM) in Baltimore City are being disproportionately affected by Syphilis and HIV. The percent of African American MSM testing positive for HIV in the health department’s STD Clinic has increased from 21 percent in 2005 to 35 percent in 2011, a 72 percent increase.
Status Update helps to connect MSM at high risk for HIV with free testing in Baltimore City. The Health Department-sponsored website, www.BaltimoreStatusUpdate.com, will provide information on testing, prevention, and community event information in a culturally sensitive, community-centric format. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) encourages everyone to know their HIV status, yet even those individuals at higher risk still are not getting tested.
“Making Baltimore a healthier city means improving the health of all city residents,” said Mayor Rawlings-Blake. “Status Update brings critical prevention and testing information to the communities most affected by HIV through targeted social marketing, prevention education, increased access to testing, and condom distribution.”
The Health Department engaged Baltimore’s Ball community to help develop and lead the Status Update campaign. The community is a surrogate home for groups of gay and transgender youth who compete in dance and performance competitions at events known as “balls.”
“Engaging this community is critical to our mutual interest in encouraging testing and safe sex practices for those whose behaviors put them and their families at unnecessary risk,” said Commissioner of Health Dr. Oxiris Barbot.
Status Update was developed by the Maryland Institute College of Art’s Center for Design Practice. They conceived the campaign’s hallmark red cross bandage symbol to help reduce the stigma surrounding HIV testing. The multi-media campaign also helps those infected with HIV to enroll in and maintain medical care.
Medical studies show early diagnosis and treatment is important to reducing the spread of HIV and improving long-term health, yet many Baltimoreans at highest risk for infection still have not been tested. According to the CDC, of the more than 1.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the U.S. today, one in five—or nearly a quarter of a million people—do not know they are positive.
For more information on HIV/AIDS in Baltimore, including testing locations, visit www.baltimorehealth.org/HIV.
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