2006 Awards to AIDS Healthcare Foundation and California Legislator
On July 22, 2006 Denise Bleak RN, MSN, Infection Control Consultant in the Los Angeles area and Ron Hattis MD, a Public Health and Preventive Medicine specialist from Redlands, California, were guests at the start of the Board Meeting of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF). They were there to present an award to the Foundation.
The prestigious 2006 "Nettie" Award to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation was presented in recognition of AHF's public policy and legislative work, and its clinical care in Africa and other international locations. The award is named for New York Assembly Member Nettie Mayersohn, author of groundbreaking state legislation to save mothers and babies from the HIV/AIDS and to help control the spread of the disease.
Specific outstanding accomplishments noted in the presentation were AHF's efforts as the lead sponsor of this year's successful California legislation for name-based HIV reporting; and for work providing HIV treatment in Uganda and South Africa.
Also recognized this year with a "Nettie" award was California State Senator Nell Soto. Soto was the author of Senate Bill 699, which finally made HIV reportable to public health authorities in the same manner as other communicable diseases in California in 2006. It took considerable political determination to finally achieve this public health goal, 25 years into the AIDS epidemic.
Dr. Hattis and Ms. Bleak serve as Board members for Beyond AIDS, a national organization which strives toward improving public health policy in the area of HIV/AIDS transmission control. Its membership organization is involved in legislative action nationally and in multiple state and local areas. The tax-deductible Beyond AIDS Foundation focuses on research and education to advocate the most effective public health approaches to HIV/AIDS issues.
From left: Judith Briggs Marsh, Chair of the AHF Board, Michael Weinstein, President of the AHF,
Ms. Bleak RN and Dr. Hattis, Beyond AIDS Board members with the Nettie award