Amida Care and NYU Langone Commemorate World AIDS Day with Special Event

On Friday, December 8,  Amida Care partnered with Family Health Centers at NYU Langone, Sunset Terrace and the Community Advisory Board for a World AIDS Day event.

Over one hundred patients, providers, and community members came together to commemorate lives lost to HIV/AIDS and to celebrate strength and hope in ending the HIV epidemic. The program featured a ribbon-pinning memorial quilt ceremony, testimonials, poetry, tabling with health resources, and dance performances.

Since Amida Care’s founding 20 years ago, we have taken a unique and innovative approach that puts the needs of people impacted by HIV first, ensuring that they get the care they need without avoidable delays. As a result, 80% of Amida Care’s members living with HIV are virally suppressed, including 94% of trans members. That means their HIV is undetectable and cannot be passed to others.

Recently, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released its 2022 HIV Surveillance Report, which is the latest data showing continued progress toward ending the HIV epidemic in New York City. There are nearly 30,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Brooklyn today, and the borough accounted for the highest number of new diagnoses out of all five boroughs in 2022. We need to make sure we are reaching New Yorkers who are placed at elevated risk for HIV and keeping those who are HIV-positive engaged in care.

Amida Care has long advocated to ensure that communities most impacted by HIV – particularly LGBTQ+ communities and communities of color – have access to care and that the providers serving these communities have the necessary resources to deliver that care. While we commemorate World AIDS Day today, this is an everyday conversation for us.  Together, we work to end the HIV epidemic every day.