For Immediate Release:
December 1, 2005

Contact: Adrienne Verrilli 212-819-9770 x325

New York , NY - On December 1, World AIDS Day 2005, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. ( SIECUS ) reaffirms our commitment to raise awareness of the HIV/AIDS pandemic both in the U.S. and worldwide. In observance of this year's theme, Stop AIDS-Keep the Promise, SIECUS will continue to promote the importance of comprehensive, medically accurate sexuality education as the mainstay in HIV prevention.

"To keep the promise of a world free of AIDS, both here in the U.S. and worldwide, we must recognize young people's right to healthy sexuality. This includes the right to comprehensive sexuality information and education," said Joseph DiNorcia, Jr., president and CEO of SIECUS.

"HIV prevention does not exist in a vacuum, and young people require a wide range of services and support. Without honest and complete education, other interventions to keep our youth HIV-free are meaningless," DiNorcia continued.

This generation of young people has not known a world without AIDS. For too many young people, AIDS is not an abstraction-it has touched their lives. Often AIDS has taken a gruesome toll on their communities and families, and many young people, especially in the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, are coming of age as HIV-positive people. Young people ages 15-24 account for half of all the new cases of HIV worldwide. Every minute, five young people worldwide become infected with HIV. This figure represents over 7,000 young people each day. Yet only 20% of people worldwide who need prevention services have access to them.

"Young people can and must be part of solving the HIV/AIDS crisis. Providing them with accurate and complete information about their sexual health not only serves to protect their health and safety, but also creates the next generation of informed educators and community leaders," said DiNorcia.

U.S. support for global HIV-prevention programs, however, seems geared to keeping young people in the dark rather than empowering them to make informed choices about relationships, sex, and their futures. The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the guiding policy for global HIV/AIDS funding, offers no policy support or funding for comprehensive HIV-prevention programs. Instead, PEPFAR will provide not less than $133 million annually to abstinence-until-marriage programs in each of 15 "focus countries" in Africa and the Caribbean, as well as Vietnam , totaling at least $665 million over five years. Research on the effectiveness of such programs in the U.S. has been inconclusive at best and at worst has shown potential harm to the sexual health of young people.

"While the commitment of the United States government in stemming the tide of HIV/AIDS is laudable, the great potential of this initiative is being lost because the politics and ideology of the Bush Administration are trumping public health needs," said DiNorcia. "We cannot keep young people in the dark if we expect to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS in any meaningful way," DiNorcia continued.

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