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U.S. Business Action to End HIV: July 2024 Action Report
A National HIV Testing Day round-up, more recent actions from members, and an exciting slate of events this fall
We are pleased to share a robust July Action Report that includes a National HIV Testing Day round-up, more recent actions from members, and an exciting slate of events that we have coming up this fall - save the dates!
We are also thinking of our friends in Houston who continue to recover from Hurricane Beryl. As well as the many Coalition members, partners, and friends who are traveling to Munich, Germany this week to attend the 25th International AIDS Conference. Please let us know if you are there so we can do our best to connect members throughout the conference.
National HIV Testing Day Round-up
Many member companies took action on National HIV Testing Day (June 27) to raise visibility about the importance of HIV testing and made connections to services. Here are highlights of member actions:
On June 27, Walgreens hosted their largest HIV testing activation to date with KFF’s Greater Than HIV, in partnership with 350+ health departments and community based organizations across the country. This year free HIV testing was offered at 550 stores, with select locations offering free syphilis and Hepatitis C testing in response to increased rates of STIs. The activation raised visibility of the ongoing epidemic and importance of HIV testing through extensive media coverage, including:
Walgreens’ Brad McElya led a media tour that resulted in 22 interviews with an estimated total reach of 404.6M+. (Checkout a segment on WQRF Rockford)
There were an additional 1K+ mentions of Walgreens and NHTD across social media with an overall reach of 655M.
Senior federal officials and public health leaders visited one of the testing locations in Washington D.C., which was covered by The Advocate.
Testing manufacturers Abbott Laboratories, BioLytical Laboratories, ChemBio Diagnostics, Diagnostics Direct and OraSure Technologies donated tests to support this year’s effort.
Walmart announced the expansion of its HIV Point-of-Care Screenings to 18 Specialty Pharmacies of the Community (SPOCs) located within Walmart Pharmacies in Colorado and Virginia, just ahead of National HIV Testing Day. These new locations follow the HIV screening pilot launched at two Walmart pharmacies in Virginia last year. Screenings at all 20 locations are free to patients as part of a continued pilot expansion that will run through September 27.
Mercer joined AIDS United, (RED), Gilead Sciences and others and contributed an article to a special Living With HIV & AIDS campaign, which ran in print as an insert within USA Today on June 28, as well as online to a national audience. Mercer invited the Coalition to join them in the sponsored effort and Caroline Jackson and Mario Harper submitted an article about employer action on HIV that ran in the insert and also online.
OraSure Technologies shared all of the ways they were supporting HIV testing initiatives on National HIV Testing Day in a news release.
Healthvana ran targeted campaigns across their platform to raise awareness and connect their patients to free HIV testing being offered by clinic partners on National HIV Testing Day.
Welcome New Members: Bastion Health, RADcube, Quick Labs (Houston), and Veda Data Solutions!
Last month Gilead Sciences announced exciting interim results from its PURPOSE 1 clinical trial showing that its twice-yearly injection of lenacapavir was 100% effective in preventing infection in cisgender women. Lenacapavir is not a new drug and is currently approved for multi-drug resistant HIV treatment, but this is the first clinical trial to test it for HIV prevention. Results are also expected in late 2024/early 2025 from the program’s other trial, PURPOSE 2, which is assessing twice-yearly lenacapavir for PrEP among cisgender men who have sex with men, transgender men, transgender women and gender non-binary individuals who have sex with partners assigned male at birth. Read more.
Healthvana was recently profiled in Stat News about how their AI-enabled chatbot is not only helping thousands of patients, but also saving staff time.
Coalition members Tracy Watts from Mercer and Neil Parikh from Thirty Madison joined de Beaumont Foundation President and CEO Brian Castrucci and Health Action Alliance Co-Founder Stephen Massey on stage in May at the thinc360 conference to discuss U.S. Business Action to End HIV and strategies to build a climate-resilient workforce - both programs of HAA.
On June 25, Ramon Gardenhire from ViiV, Will Kimbrough from One Medical, and Ruben Yano from Accenture joined Mario Harper for the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions webinar about how the private sector is bringing new expertise and momentum to our nation’s efforts to end the HIV epidemic. The National Alliance also released an Action Brief to accompany the webinar providing action steps for employers and other plan sponsors to implement this work.
The first meeting of the Coalition's Government Relations Cohort took place on June 27 with leaders across member companies. The group reviewed shared HIV policy priorities and ways for the group to collaborate on policy together. They also previewed the upcoming Southern Policymaker Academy being hosted by the Southern AIDS Coalition and Gilead on July 30-31 in Atlanta. Members will soon receive a survey to narrow the list of policy priorities and begin creating a framework for the how the group can most effectively work together.
We officially announced the Houston chapter on June 26 to all members of the Greater Houston LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce. Companies can now visit the new Houston Chapter page and register for the first meeting on September 25, from 12-2pm CT.
Health departments, HIV service organizations, faith-based organizations, and other community-based organizations in Atlanta and Houston (and soon Los Angeles) who want to join the local chapters can now complete the Community Partner Form and share how they wish to partner with local businesses. Community partners will be listed in a community directory which will be made available to chapter companies to foster deeper collaboration.
On July 11, Mario joined Dr. Mohammed Khader for RADcube’s Ethical AI Adoption Conference to share the work of the Coalition and discuss the importance of AI-driven tools in healthcare, including sexual and mental health.
Mario discussed corporate action on HIV, National HIV Testing Day, and more in “Carbon Convos”, a series from Carbon, which is a platform about wellness for the Black community with a focus on resilience and joy.
Opportunities for Action
Take Action on Zero Stigma Day: This Sunday, July 21 is Zero HIV Stigma Day - a day to unite people, raise awareness, and take action against HIV stigma, which can lead to discrimination, social isolation, and mental health challenges that deter people from taking live-saving actions like getting tested and connecting to treatment and care.
This year’s theme, “Beyond Labels: Redefining HIV Narratives,” seeks to reshape perceptions, inspire empathy, and drive collective action toward a world free from HIV-related stigma. By amplifying diverse voices and stories, this day strives to create a more compassionate and inclusive society for all.
Coalition strategic partner Prevention Access Campaign is partnering with Grindr to promote the game-changing de-stigmatizing U=U message to millions of global Grindr users for #ZeroHIVStigmaDay. U=U stands for Undetectable = Untransmittable, meaning that people living with HIV who have undetectable viral loads have zero risk of passing on HIV to sexual partners.
Sponsorship Opportunity: Global Black Pride will be held in Atlanta this year from August 27 - September 2 and the organizers are looking for event sponsors. The festivities will include a week-long series of events, including a Health and Human Rights conference (Aug 27-29) held in its Global Village connecting public and private entities and a Political Leaders Summit aimed at addressing big policy issues impacting Black LGBTQI+ individuals. With over 400,000 expected attendees, the events will showcase the strength, diversity, and resilience of the Black LGBTQI+ community worldwide. To learn more about becoming an event sponsor, email Mario.
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