School of Public Health Commemorates World AIDS Day
The UIC School of Public Health marked the 30thWorld AIDS Day with an event on November 29 recognizing the past, present and future of HIV/AIDS prevention in Chicago, across the state of Illinois and across the globe.
The event featured experts in the fight against AIDS at UI Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, including the School of Public Health, College of Medicine, College of Nursing and College of Pharmacy; the Midwest AIDS Training + Education Center; and the Illinois Department of Public Health. In addition to presentations, free HIV testing services were offered during the event.
Drs. Max Brito and Richard Novak detailed efforts by the School of Public Health’s Community Outreach Intervention Project to connect Chicago residents with pre-exposure interventions and HIV/AIDS testing starting in the 1980s, while Eduardo Alvarado from the Illinois Department of Public Health discussed statewide efforts to bring the infection rate down to zero.
A panel of stakeholders and patients from the community detailed challenges living with HIV over time and the need for greater access to resources from the medical community itself.
Dr. Mark Dworkin, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics with the School of Public Health, presented on efforts to build interventions for female sex workers in India, noting an ethnographic approach was necessary to understand the public health needs of this population.