New AIDS Awareness Campaign is Getting Results

A new public health campaign, sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, is already getting results, reports Medical Marketing and Media.

The Los Angeles-based organization is blitzing the city’s radios, online computers, and billboards with “get tested” messages. Their efforts have paid off in an increase of traffic to their website and to testing centers around LA. Their most prominent ads are giant billboards of a man’s naked, muscular back, with the words, “Get Tested,” tattooed across his shoulders. This campaign marks the beginning of the organization’s goal of having 40,000 tested for HIV in Los Angeles this year. According to the Centers for Disease Control:

At the end of 2003, an estimated 1,039,000 to 1,185,000 persons in the United States were living with HIV/AIDS, with 24%-27% undiagnosed and unaware of their HIV infection.

While there is still no cure for HIV/AIDS, there are medicines that can slow its progression. But early diagnosis is crucial for the patient’s longevity. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation hopes that its latest campaign will encourage people to get that early diagnosis.