Policy

Christie’s Place and the National Women and AIDS Collective (NWAC) envision a world where testing, prevention, care and treatment is adequately resourced in order to better target and support the needs of women living with HIV/AIDS.
 
We aim to achieve this by focusing on the following:

• Advocate for better surveillance outcomes for women, to more accurately reflect the disease within the U.S. HIV/AIDS data which has implications for resource allocation.
• Advocate for reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act to include support services and medical services to better meet the needs of women and their families.
• Collaborate with other organizations and social justice movements to advance our goals.  

Christie’s Place is a member of the leadership team of the NWAC. The Collective is comprised of grantees of the Ms. Foundation’s Women and AIDS Fund. NWAC is currently working to change outdated HIV surveillance guidelines that focus on targeted HIV testing for “high risk” groups. Many women today are becoming infected through heterosexual sex within what they believe is a monogamous relationship. They do not necessarily know all of the risk factors of their male partner. Unless a woman can report that she is being sexually active with someone with an MSM, IDU or sex work history, she is not considered high risk for acquiring HIV. She is placed in a “No Identified Risk” category. Nationally, 47% of women testing HIV-positive are placed in this category. Because women are not seen as being high risk for HIV, resources are not allocated to focus on prevention and testing campaigns focused on them. Many women are under the impression that they are completely safe. Twenty-five years into the HIV epidemic we know that it only takes one sexual contact to become infected. NWAC is determined to change a system that is not taking women’s risk for HIV seriously.


Policy Positions:
Women and AIDS – Just the Facts (PDF)
Microbicides: A Female Controlled Prevention Tool (PDF)