FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: 12/1/08

Contact: Regina Perry, Public Information Officer

               973-266-5339/Office

               Nicole Wigfall, Program Coordinator

973-266-5192/Office

               973-395-8927/Fax

Words AIDS DAY - DECEMBER 1st

DECEMBER 1st is WORLD AIDS DAY 2008.

Today is an opportunity to work in partnership with all stakeholders and encourage people to get a Rapid HIV test to learn their status, and get necessary treatment.

Rapid HIV testing is a diagnostic tool that allows patients to learn their HIV status in 10 to 40 minutes. The East Orange Health Department is one of more than 150 publicly funded counseling testing sites in New Jersey. Testing is anonymous and free of charge.

More than 35,000 persons were reported living with HIV or AIDS in New Jersey, with minorities accounting for 76 percent of adult/adolescent cumulative HIV/AIDS cases, and 78 percent of all persons living with the disease.

New Jersey ranks fifth among the states with more than 70,000 cumulative AIDS cases and has one of the highest percentages of women who have the disease.

Latinos account for 15 percent of the state’s population and 22 percent of all new HIV infections. African Americans make up 14 percent of the state’s total population, but 56 percent of those living with HIV/AIDS in the state. Nineteen percent of women living with HIV in New Jersey are Latinas.

In memory of those persons whom we have lost…Stay safe.