WASHINGTON, April 7 (UPI) -- A five-year U.S. communication campaign highlights that almost every 10 minutes an American gets infected with HIV, White House officials said.
Officials from the White House, Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday that the campaign, Act Against AIDS, aims to combat complacency about the HIV/AIDS crisis in the United States.
More than 14,000 people with AIDS die each year in the United States, officials of the CDC said.
"Act Against AIDS seeks to put the HIV crisis back on the national radar screen," Melody Barnes, assistant to the president and director of the White House Domestic Policy Council said in a statement.
"Our goal is to remind Americans that HIV/AIDS continues to pose a serious health threat in the United States and encourage them to get the facts they need to take action for themselves and their communities."
The first phase of the $45 million Act Against AIDS campaign, called "9-and-a-half Minutes," uses a series of video, audio, print and online materials to increase knowledge about the severity of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the United States.
