Fulton Task Force Tackles HIV/AIDS Infections In County

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ALPHARETTA, GA -- On Tuesday, the Fulton County Task Force on HIV/AIDS is host a community listening session to solicit input from north Fulton residents that will help shape a strategic plan to end HIV/AIDS in the county.

The public meeting, hosted by District 2 Fulton County Commissioner Bob Ellis will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 3 at the Alpharetta Public Library at 10 Park Plaza.

The session is free and open to the public.

“At a time when HIV infections are decreasing across the globe, Fulton County and metro Atlanta are epicenters of HIV in America," Ellis said. "The Fulton County Board of Commissioners has formed the Fulton County Task Force on HIV/AIDS to build a Strategy to End AIDS in our county. Ending this epidemic will require a community-wide response, and this upcoming Listening Session is one way to ensure our community members have an opportunity to contribute.”

Joining Commissioner Ellis at the forum will be Melanie Thompson, M.D., a task force member and the executive editor of the strategic plan, John Brooks, M.D., medical epidemiologist with the CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, and Robin Elliott, a Fulton County mother who lost her son to a heroin overdose.

Dr. Thompson indicates that the input received at these Community Listening Sessions will be essential as the committee develops a strategic plan to achieve these goals:

• Reduce HIV incidence;
• Increase access to care and improve health outcomes so that people living with HIV/AIDS can lead healthy, long lives;
• Reduce HIV-related healthcare disparities; and
• Achieve a more coordinated response to HIV/AIDS.

Discussion at the meeting will also focus on the dangerous link between injection heroin use and HIV infection. Heroin use in the northern Atlanta suburbs and the number of heroin-related deaths have dramatically risen in the past few years.

Regrettably, a disproportionate number of heroin users in the suburbs are teenagers, fueling the biggest percentage growth in heroin casualties in Georgia.

About 80 percent of people with the HIV infection who inject drugs also have the hepatitis C virus (HCV), and many with acute HCV infection have no detectable symptoms. According to Dr. Thompson, Fulton County is only one HIV or HCV infection away from a full-fledged epidemic among youth who inject drugs.

“The time to prevent an HIV/HCV epidemic among youth in north Fulton County is now,” Dr. Thompson said.

More information about the Fulton County Task Force on HIV/AIDS can be found online.

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Photo: Bob Ellis. Credit: Fulton County