AIDS Advocacy Network
Who We Are
The AIDS Advocacy Network (AAN) is a group of passionate student-activists dedicated to ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We use our powerful voices as current and future health professional students to advance evidence-based interventions to reduce stigma and transmission of the virus. We seek to build a movement of young health professionals students to maximize our power and push leaders to act now to put us on the fast-track to ending the pandemic.
What We Do
Our campaigns shift every year with ongoing developments in the pandemic, but our goals remain the same:
- 0 Deaths from AIDS-related causes
- 0 New transmissions
- 0 Stigma
These goals are based the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and go hand in hand with ambition targets to have 90% of people living with HIV (PLWH) knowing their status, 90% of those people on treatment, and 90% of those with an undetectable viral load. However, these goals cannot be realized without diligent, persistent resources from the resource-rich nations of the world. Through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the United States has been a leader in the fight to end the pandemic – but this progress is threatened by a lack of political will and leadership.
How to Get Involved 
- Join our listserv: Subscribe with a Google Account or send an email to aids-advocacy+subscribe@amsa.org
- Apply to join the AAN Steering Committee
- Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
- Check out our Advocacy Toolkit for ideas on how to take action
- Participate in the Global Health Scholars Program
Contact the AAN Chair for more information: aan.chair@amsa.org
Our Campaigns
Fully funding PEPFAR: Each year the AAN collaborates with partner organizations working on the ground in the hardest-hit countries to protect funding for PEPFAR. The US’s commitment to this crucial initiative is always at risk, and it is only through powerful advocacy by our student members that we continue to make progress towards ending the pandemic.
- Read our policy brief and find out how to take action
- Learn more about PEPFAR’s work putting people on treatment and saving lives
Ending the Global Gag Rule: Every Republican administration since Ronald Reagan has implemented the ‘Mexico City Policy’ or ‘Global Gag Rule,’ blocking federal funding to international organizations who even discuss abortion as part of comprehensive birth control options with their patients. Congressional action through HR671, the Global HER Act, could stop this harmful policy for good.
- Read our policy brief and find out how to take action
- Watch our webinar with Planned Parenthood on the deadly impact of the Global Gag Rule
- Use Planned Parenthood’s tool to contact your elected officials
- Current or future health care provider? Sign PP’s provider pledge!
#BreakThePatent: HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, a once daily pill that prevents HIV transmission with over 90% effectiveness has been widely available since 2012, however it is prohibitively expensive for many. At upwards of $1600 per month, the drug is not reaching those that need it the most. Since Truvada was largely developed with public funding through the National Institutes of Health, the NIH can exercise ‘march-in rights’ to increase access!
- Learn more and sign the petition to the NIH
- Read our policy brief about access to PrEP
Harm Reduction: Overwhelming evidence has demonstrated that syringe exchange programs and safe-injection sites have the potential to reduce fatal overdoses and save lives. They have the dual benefit of preventing HIV transmission through the repeated use of needles by multiple people. However, in many cases policy has not kept up with the evidence. Learn more about syringe exchanges and harmful policies.
Access to medicines: Across the globe, pharmaceutical companies are becoming more brazen in their attempts to extend patent life and reap profits from PLWH and others living with chronic diseases. Review this PowerPoint by AAN leaders about the basics of intellectual property, patents, and access to medicines.
Tuberculosis: TB is a leading killer of PLWH. In fact, one in three AIDS-related deaths is due to TB. More resources and attention are needed to bend the curve on this deadly co-pandemic.
Learn More
What will we say to our children when they ask… “What did you do when you knew about the plague of AIDS?”
The AIDS pandemic did not happen overnight. The 37 million people who are currently infected with HIV are the victims of a global failure to mobilize. In order to understand what challenges we face in seeking to overcome this failure and turn the tide against this disease, it is important that we know the history of the pandemic and how we have come to be where we are today.
History of the Pandemic & Activist Movement
- ACT UP New York’s capsule histories
- Health GAP (Health Global Access Project)
- TAC (Treatment Action Campaign) of South Africa
- AIDS Myths and Facts
Other actions