On Friday morning, December 1, the LGBTQ and allied community came together for the 14th Annual Stronger Together World AIDS Day Breakfast at the Seattle Sheraton Hote for the second year in a row.
After welcoming remarks from KOMO 4 News anchor Molly Shen and messages from Gay City's Fred Swanson and Seattle Counseling Service Executive Director, Ann McGettigan, the breakfast began.
The crowd applauded when they announced that Washington state is the first U.S. state to achieve the 90-90-90 UnAIDS Campaign goal. 90-90-90 is an ambitious treatment target promoted by the United Nations to help end the AIDS epidemic. It's goals are that by 2020, 90% of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status. By 2020, 90% of all people with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy. By 2020, 90% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression.
This year's honorees were HIV/AIDS community activist Kenny Joe McMullen from Project Handle and Kevin Patz from CareTeams.
More information about Project Handle can be found at: http://www.nhwa.org/lookinside/program.php?program=Community+Health
More information about CareTeams can be found at: http://www.samaritanps.org/node/390
This year's keynote speaker was Dr. Marjorie Hill from the Adabbo Health Center in Queens, NY. In her remarks she recalled her first experience with HIV/AIDS when she learned of her best friend's AIDS diagnosis in the early-1980's when AIDS was largely untreatable and compared that to where we are at now where it can be treated with antiretroviral medication.
According to Seattle Counseling Service close to $120,000 was raised at the breakfast.
Beneficiaries of the breakfast were Gay City Health Project, Seattle Counseling Service, and CareTeams, a program of Samaritan Center of Puget Sound.
No comments:
Post a Comment