Health Commissioner Urges New Yorkers to Get Tested

NEW YORK CITY - June 25, 2004 - To mark National HIV Testing Day (June 27),
New York City Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Thomas R. Frieden, MD,
MPH urged New Yorkers to get tested for HIV/AIDS, and to disclose their HIV
status to their partners. It is estimated that more than 20,000 New Yorkers
are living with HIV/AIDS but unaware that they are infected, leaving them
without the option of treatment and potentially putting thousands more at
risk of contracting the disease.

Commissioner Frieden said, "New York City remains at the epicenter of the
country's epidemic. If you have HIV, it's important to know. By knowing your
HIV status, you can protect yourself and your partners. Call your doctor, or
call 311 to find out how to get a free, confidential HIV test. Avoiding
risky sexual behavior, using condoms, and discussing your HIV status with
your partners are important to protect yourself and others and to stop the
spread of HIV/AIDS. Knowing your HIV status can save your life."

Earlier today, in commemoration of National HIV Testing Day, DOHMH's
Assistant Commissioner for HIV Services Marjorie Hill, PhD along with the
National Black Commission on AIDS, the Latino Coalition on AIDS, Gay Men's
Health Crisis, Urban Resource Institute and Housing Works joined Orasure, a
manufacturer of a rapid HIV test at the NASDAQ opening in Times Square
earlier this morning to discuss the importance of knowing your HIV status
and disclosing that information to sexual partners. Additionally, DOHMH's
Assistant Commissioner for STD Prevention Susan Blank, MD, MPH joined the
U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona, MD, MPH, FACS and Donna Futterman, MD,
Director of Montefiore Hospital's Adolescent AIDS Program in the Bronx to
promote HIV testing day.

According to the latest Health Department HIV surveillance report from the
first 3 months of 2003 (available online at
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/pdf/dires/dires-2004-report-qtr1.pdf), 85,000
adults have been reported living with HIV/AIDS in New York City; at least
20,000 more are estimated to be living with the disease and don't know it.
Of new diagnoses, more than half were among blacks and approximately 30%
were among Hispanics.

New pediatric HIV/AIDS infections have steadily declined both nationally and
locally in recent years. There have been approximately 3,800 diagnoses of
children with HIV/AIDS in New York City since the beginning of the epidemic;
nearly 1,400 of these children have died. The majority (98%) of these
children were perinatally infected, that is, during pregnancy, labor and
delivery, or through breastfeeding.

Women who are pregnant or who are planning pregnancy should know their HIV
status. Without medication, a mother can pass HIV to her baby. Treatment can
improve both the mother's health and greatly reduce the chance that the baby
will get infected.

Know Your HIV Status - A "Take Care New York" Priority

Knowing your HIV status is one of top ten priorities of Take Care New York -
the City's new comprehensive health policy. While HIV/AIDS deaths have
declined greatly in the past ten years, the disease remains the fifth
leading cause of death among all New Yorkers and the leading cause of death
for New Yorkers ages 25-44. By 2008, the City aims to reduce the annual AIDS
death rate by half.

DOHMH's 10 STD clinics, located in each of the five boroughs, provide free
services, including STD diagnosis and treatment, confidential or anonymous
HIV testing, and hepatitis immunizations on a walk?in basis regardless of
immigration status. For physicians, treatment guidelines and other STD
information are available at http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/std/std.html.
Further information is available by calling 311, visiting nyc.gov/health or
from your medical provider.