World set up their own surveillance group. This was led by dr. Susan sheer and dr. Willie mcfar land and i want to acknowledge them and their entire team. applause the hiv prevention section formerly led it now its led by tracy packer who is here in the crowd. applause and stacey leads an amazing team of people. They not only oversee and set the priorities for hiv prevention in the entire city and serve as really, again, one of the flagship prevention programs globally in making decisions about how to have the biggest impact on driving down new infections. But theyre also a World Class Research organization that does research on testing, on linkage to care, community viral load, treatment of Substance Use as a way to prevent new hiv infections. And she, again, has a very difficult verse and very talented team and were really excited to work with them as well. applause and then finally i want to introduce my staff. We were formally known as the hiv Research Section. But as you can see w
Test to where a link to the past and the future. So, were a link to the past and the future, and more than anything were a link to the community. And our motto is where science meets community. Our team does really Cutting Edge Research on different kinds of prevention strategies, preexposure prophylaxis. And if you go to our website, join prep hiv, youll see all of the many exciting studies that we have as well as our partnership with San Francisco city clinic in launching the first demonstration project of preexposure prophylaxis, taking antihiv medicines to prevent new infections. Were studying topical gels, retro microbicide. The way were going to end this epidemic is through a vaccine, weve controlled other Infectious Diseases through a cure. Were proud of our staff who contribute to this as well as the many study participants. And im just going to close with a quick word about the project. The way that this project came about was actually one of our staff members, Janey Vincent w
Happen, none of our activities could happen without the support of the city. Thats what makes us such a unique organization. Its what weve always had such strong support from the city. So, mayor lee, thank you. applause thank you. Thank you, susan and barbara, and thank you all for coming out today on this Ribbon Cutting on a very, very important center of research. We have never given up on this fight to end aids, and i am so thankful to be working with supervisor scott weaner and supervisor david campos and the board of supervisors. And we have through the budget year in and year out, and particularly this last couple years, where state and federal funds may have been waiting. We stood up and said, we are continuing this fight at the highest level to make sure we Fund Everything we can to end this aids epidemic. You know, ive been in the city working and the numbers came out. There were 20,000 people that died of this dreaded disease. There were over 20,000 people, more still are suf
Difference not only at the individual level, but for increasing Community Health and wellness. So, again, a real signal real shout out to San Francisco for your leadership. And a real signal to how we can potentially move forward as a nation. So, thank you. So, San Francisco has been a model city for over 30 years in hiv prevention care and treatment. We look forward to working with you at the National Aids policy. We are going to continue to do a lot of outreach, conversations, figuring out how to bring the Community Voice to the federal level. It is always helpful for us to remind ourselves what have we done today to prevent new hiv infections. What have we done today to improve somebodys life living with hiv. And we know to recognize and to realize the present vision of an aids regeneration, we need to continue to build more bridges, which is like this. So, thank you very much and congratulations. applause thank you, brandt. Next id like to introduce herb schultz who is the regional
Integrating with surveillance work, with prevention work, and with communitybased organizations. And this is really the San Francisco model that really resonates in terms of how we approach the epidemic. The research is eloquent, its rigorous, and it involves community at all levels. And that is something i think we really need to celebrate about what Bridge Research means today. So, at the office of National Aids policy, our job is to implement the president s National Hiv Aids strategy. The president released the strategy two years ago. This is the first strategy for the First Comprehensive strategy for the United States since the first epidemic. It has three main Health Outcome goals, to reduce hiv incidents, to improve health and wellness outcomes for People Living with hiv, and to reduce hivrelated disparities. Im sure that sounds familiar to many of you because thats certainly aligned with many of the San Franciscos efforts. The fourth goal is to develop a more comprehensive coor