The campaign, Act Against AIDS, is a common effort of the White House, Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The goal “is to remind Americans that HIV/AIDS continues to pose a serious health threat in the United States and encourage them to get the facts they need to take action for themselves and their communities,” Melody Barnes, director of the White House domestic policy council, said in a statement.

 

Officials will spend $45 million over five years for radio ads, transit signs, airport dioramas, online banner ads and online videos both in English and Spanish at www.NineAndaHalfMinutes.org. They will contain messages urging people to abstain from sex or use condoms, and to talk frankly about the risks of HIV with sexual partners.

 

The campaign, however promising it may sound, is highly criticized by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which urged the government to spend $200 million to get more people tested for HIV instead of spending $45 million on “words.”

 

“A $45 million dollar communications plan no matter how well intended will do little to help identify those 300,000 infected individuals who may unknowingly be infecting others,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

 

According to the CDC data, about 56,000 Americans become newly infected with HIV annually and more than 14,000 people die of it, with 1.1 million people currently infected. Worldwide, 33 million are infected and 25 million have died because of AIDS.