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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
OBSERVING APRIL 10 AS NATIONAL YOUTH HIV/AIDS AWARENESS DAY
WHEREAS, “National Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness Day” is a nationwide observance that calls on people to take action to invest in the health, education, and leadership of young people; and
WHEREAS, more than 40 years into the epidemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that in the United States, more than 1.2 million people are living with HIV, and 31,800 people were diagnosed with HIV in the United States in 2022; and
WHEREAS, in 2022, youth aged 13 to 24 years composed 20 percent of all new HIV diagnoses in the United States; and
WHEREAS, young people living with HIV are the least likely of any age group to be retained in care and have a suppressed viral load; and
WHEREAS, the majority of young people living with HIV ages 13 to 24 are unaware of their HIV status; and
WHEREAS, African-American youth are most impacted by the epidemic, representing a majority of new transmissions in young people ages 13 to 24; and
WHEREAS, young African-American gay and bisexual men are even more severely affected; and
WHEREAS, young gay and bisexual men accounted for the majority of all new HIV diagnoses in people aged 13 to 24 in 2022; and
WHEREAS, the National HIV/AIDS Strategy highlights the fact that young people often experience worse HIV outcomes on status awareness, pre-exposure prophylaxis uptake, and health outcomes; and
WHEREAS, the National HIV/AIDS Strategy recommends children and young adults who are living with HIV need tailored and often more intensive medical and support services to support them as they grow and become young adults; and
WHEREAS, the Nation’s largest Federal program dedicated to providing care and treatment for people living with HIV was named after Ryan White, a teenager from Indiana who helped educate a Nation about HIV and AIDS in the 1980s; and
WHEREAS, the Ryan White Part D Program is one of the national efforts to link young people living with HIV to medical care and support services; and
WHEREAS, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provides youth, including those living with or impacted by HIV and AIDS, with better access to health care coverage, more health insurance options, additional funding for sex education, a prohibition against denying health coverage to people living with HIV, and expanded access to Medicaid, which provides health coverage to low-income people living with HIV; and
WHEREAS, National Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness Day calls for a generation free of HIV stigma in a manner that prioritizes youth leadership and development in order to ensure youth involvement in decisions that impact their health and well-being as well as advance a pipeline for the next generation of HIV and AIDS doctors, advocates, educators, researchers, and other professionals; and
WHEREAS, Cook County Health’s HIV Integrated Programs offers education, prevention offers education, prevention, testing and treatment in response to the ongoing HIV epidemic in Chicago and suburban Cook County; and
WHEREAS, the CORE Center had 72,000 visits in 2025, and is one of the busiest HIV and infectious disease health centers in the US; and
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Cook County Board of Commissioners hereby commemorates April 10, 2026 as National Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness Day in Cook County; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this text be spread upon the official proceedings of this Honorable Body.
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