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Kaiser Permanente Southern California Continues Fight Against HIV with Quality Care, Ongoing Medical Research, and More than $400,000 in GrantsPASADENA, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- In observance of World AIDS Day (December 1) and as part of Kaiser Permanente Southern California's long-standing commitment to prevention and reducing health disparities, the organization today announced it has awarded $418,120 to community organizations dedicated to HIV/AIDS care and prevention. Since 2001, Kaiser Permanente Southern California has awarded more than $3.5 million in Community Benefit HIV/AIDS grants. "Kaiser Permanente is proud to provide funding to these organizations to continue the fight against HIV and support the much-needed work in the communities we serve," said William Towner, MD, director, HIV Medical Care Program, Kaiser Permanente Southern California. "This funding will help other non-profit organizations identify HIV-positive patients sooner, provide HIV counseling to decrease risky behaviors, improve access to mobile dental care, expand addiction case management, promote health and well-being programs for homeless youth, and much more." The 32 organizations in Southern California that were awarded grants in 2012 were chosen specifically for their approach to preventing new HIV infections through education; connecting HIV-positive patients with high quality care; and reducing disparities among minority populations. The grants include the following:
Kaiser Permanente Southern California also continues to advance medical knowledge with researchers at the Department of Research & Evaluation in Pasadena, Calif., utilizing electronic medical records and analyzing the overall adherence to prevention and screening guidelines. Scientific research is also conducted at various medical centers. At the Los Angeles Medical Center earlier this year, Dr. Towner looked at liver-related deaths for those with HIV and found that patients with HIV did have a higher risk of liver failure but that antiretroviral therapies did not increase the risk. Clinically, this is significant in light of the calls from both the World Health Organization and the U.S. National HIV/AIDS Strategy to increase the number of people who take the medications. Kaiser Permanente Southern California is a leader in caring for patients with HIV and AIDS. Our care teams have treated more than 60,000 people since the beginning of the pandemic and have reduced disparities among the current estimated 20,000 HIV-positive patients. Kaiser Permanente Southern California has an outstanding record of successful HIV clinical care outcomes:
This year, Kaiser Permanente challenged all health care providers nationwide to improve the health equity for people living with HIV by sharing a toolkit of clinical best practices, mentoring, training, and health IT expertise (kp.org/hivchallenge) An estimated 1.2 million people are living with HIV in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One in five is unaware of their infection and about 50,000 Americans are infected with HIV each year. World AIDS Day is an opportunity for people around the world to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV, and commemorate those who have died. About Kaiser Permanente Southern California Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high quality, affordable health care services to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve more than 3.5 million members in Southern California. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: www.kp.org/newscenter.
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