Testing Makes Us Stronger Campaign Against HIV

HIV is a devastating and deadly virus that affects 1.1 million Americans annually (CDC, 2010). The hardest hit group is that of gay or bisexual black males. The “Testing Makes Us Stronger” campaign was implemented August 15, 2011 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in response to this need for awareness and prevention in the black gay and bisexual male community. From 2006-2009, the number of infected black bisexual and gay men increased by 48% (CDC.gov, 2006-2009) showing an increased need for education and prevention as well access to HIV/AIDS testing in the community in order to reduce the occurrence of HIV among black gay and bisexual males.

The “Testing Makes Us Stronger” is a national awareness campaign designed by the CDC to empower and educate gay and bisexual males on the risk and prevention methods associated with HIV. The campaign has developed websites, social media, journal articles, posters, brochures, and community projects in order to spread the awareness of the campaign among the gay and bisexual community. They discuss the high risk behaviors associated with HIV transmission and the occurrence in an attempt to spread awareness and promote testing. "Among HIV-positive Black MSM under age 30, 71 percent were previously unaware of their infection" (blackaids.org). The main focus of the campaign is to make gay and bisexual males more aware of their HIV status regardless of the outcome. Being more informed allows the at risk group to take proper precautions by utilizing testing to reduce the spread of the disease.

The understand the message framing of this campaign you must first ask yourself some questions. What do we gain? What do we lose? These questions can be simply answered by two words, ...

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...iety united can we make a change.

Bibliography

Bagby, D. (2011, August 15). CDC campaign Testing Makes Us Stronger targets black gay, bisexual men. Retrieved from www.thegavoice.com: www.thegavoice.com blackaids.org. (n.d.). Retrieved 1 27, 2014, from Reversing the Alarming HIV Increase Among Black Gay Men, Part 1: http://www.blackaids.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=969

CDC. (2010). Retrieved 02 10, 2014, from HIV in the United States: At A Glance: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/statistics/basics/ataglance.html

CDC.gov. (2006-2009). Retrieved 01 27, 2014, from Testing Makes Us Stronger: http://hivtest.cdc.gov/stonger/hiv/index.html

Jensen, O. &. (2007). Framing Health Choices: What Do We Lose? What Do We Gain? In A. D. Pre, Communicating About Health (p. 374). Oxford University Press, Inc.

Pre, A. d. (2010). Communicating About Health . New York Oxford.