LGBT HIV/AIDS Article

The article is written by a gay man , who lost his first partner to AIDS and dedicated himself to spreading information about HIV prevention and campaigning for governmental attention to the problem in to save `other gay and bisexual men from losing the ones they love (Williams 2006 , para . 6 . Clark Williams also served as the interim executive director of the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center at the moment of the article 's release and as a manager of county 's HIV prevention counseling , and testing initiatves in 2001-2003

The article reports

the LGBT community of Santa Clara County joining other concerned citizens at a meeting where the county 's Board of Supervisors Chair promised to attract additional financial resources to strengthen public health system in the face of accelerating rate of HIV transmission . The focus of the effort should be prevention and early diagnosis . The article recalls the start of HIV /AIDS epidemic that was first regarded as a rare form of cancer endangering gay and bisexual male New Yorkers . In 2006 , the number of Americans who died from AIDS reached 550 ,000 and continued to grow . Approximately 40 ,000 citizens are getting infected with HIV every year

Santa Clara County , for its part , has lost 2 ,000 residents to the disease . More than 2 ,500 were living with HIV /AIDS this number might have been considerably higher because one in three citizens having HIV remains undiagnosed . 80 percent of new infections with the virus in Santa Clara County were among gay and bisexual males

Santa Clara County is reported as being `near the heart of our nation 's HIV /AIDS epidemic (Williams , 2006 , para . 5 . Apart from focusing on the human tragedy of living with HIV diagnosis or loosing a friend , a family member , a colleague , or a neighbor to the disease , the article discusses the problem of HIV /AIDS through the prism of financial burden on the county 's social security system . Lifetime cost of HIV treatment is estimated to be as high as 155 ,000 per patient . These costs are much higher if the disease is not diagnosed at early stages , which is often the case in Santa Clara County , where patients learn about their HIV status in an emergency room

However , the author notes several positive developments in the field of public health , such as risk reduction counseling to people living with HIV /AIDS and public HIV test counseling locations . Santa Clara County is compared with San Francisco , where HIV test counseling facilities are abundant . In Santa Clara County , there is only one public testing facility , despite the fact that the number of LGBT is over 100 ,000 in the area . The Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center is deemed as the most appropriate place to establish another full-time test counseling facility , since it is known for its excellence in providing HIV prevention to at-risk population

One additional testing facility will not solve the problem in the county . It is not only LGBT population that...