Telluride AIDS Benefit: Adapting to Serve Better

23 Aug Telluride AIDS Benefit: Adapting to Serve Better

The following is a note from Telluride AIDS Benefit Executive Director Jessica Galbo. Donate here today.

Lockdown has decreased HIV testing dramatically, increasing the number of people who don’t know their status and can pass on the virus. Locally, TAB is providing free HIV take-home tests at Sunshine Pharmacy in Telluride.

Knowing your status protects you from passing on the virus, sound familiar? Sadly, across the globe, there are many parallels between HIV and COVID-19. Stigma is a big one, with infected individuals facing tired, damaging, outdated and ill-informed stereotypes. What better time to squash these attitudes?

At TAB, the students participating in the HIV Awareness Project are doing just that. They recently traveled the western slope to visit TAB’s frontline partners and find out how recent lockdowns have affected mental health, youth homelessness, stereotypes and HIV transmission. The students heard from physicians, youth prevention specialists and case managers prepping them to be the next wave of ambassadors for change.

PLUS:

FIGHT:

STRIDING TOGETHER

For over thirty years, thousands of people from across Colorado have joined together as a community to raise money for organizations that provide critical services to people living with or at risk of acquiring HIV.

Learn more here.

AND:

FREE HOME TESTING

Testing is the easiest way to slow the spread of HIV. In fact one in eight people with HIV don’t know they have it. Knowledge is power and we’re putting the power in your hands. Get a free at home HIV test at Sunshine Pharmacy.

Learn more here.