News Detail
SUNY-PAEG hosting "Personally Living with HIV/AIDS: 25 Years and Counting" for World AIDS Day
11.12.09
The SUNY Potsdam AIDS Education Group (SUNY-PAEG) is recognizing its 21st year on campus and the 21st official observation of World AIDS Day with a lecture by long-term HIV survivor Doug Weiss who will present “Personally Living with HIV/AIDS: 25 Years and Counting” on Tuesday, Dec. 1, at 6 p.m. in the Satterlee Hall College Theater.
Having lived with HIV for more than 25 years, Weiss will discuss his compelling personal journey of survival. He creates a frank and open sexuality and HIV/STD dialogue with a dynamic and demanding narrative pedagogy style.
Weiss explores, stimulates and provokes awareness about risk factors and emerging trends as we enter the fourth decade of no cure for HIV/AIDS.
As a motivational speaker, Weiss has addressed students and community members at dozens of colleges and universities. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from
Northeastern University and attended State University of New York at Albany with a double major in English literature and psychology.
World AIDS Day is recognized each December 1 as the day when individuals and organizations from around the world come together to bring attention to the global AIDS epidemic. World AIDS Day is about raising money, increasing awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education.
The theme of this year’s World AIDS Day is Universal Access and Human Rights.
The first case of AIDS was diagnosed in Los Angeles in 1981, even though the term, AIDS, had not yet been coined. Since that first diagnosis, more than 33 million people worldwide have been infected with the virus and more than 1 million people in the United States are HIV positive. New York and California have some of the highest rates of HIV and AIDS in the country.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 25 percent of the people in the United States who are HIV positive do not know their status.
“The AIDS pandemic has been described by a number of international agencies and health care providers as one of the most destructive viruses to affect human populations,” said Anthropology Professor and Campus AIDS Education Coordinator Dr. Patricia Whelehan. “Prevention, testing and treatment are key elements of addressing this health crisis given that there is neither a cure nor a vaccine.”
SUNY-PAEG was created in 1988 by faculty, staff and students interested in promoting HIV/AIDS awareness and education and developing interventions to reduce the risk of infection. Since then, their activities have included networking and working with local, regional, national and international groups to achieve this goal.
The lecture is free, and the public is invited to attend. For information, contact Dr. Whelehan at whelehpe@potsdam.edu or (315) 267-2048.
Contact:
Dr. Whelehan
(315) 267-2048 | whelehpe@potsdam.edu