Posted: March 12, 2003

Crowd Gathers at Statehouse for HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

Indianapolis--A crowd of approximately 200 people gathered at the Indiana Statehouse on Tuesday March 11 for HIV/AIDS awareness day.

With a theme of Here our voices. See our faces, the rally was intended to raise awareness to state legislators and urge them to maintain funding for programs.

Senator Billie Breaux (D - Marion) stated, "We no longer can keep our head in the sand. That it's about time that we rose up and recognize what this is doing. It's not doing it to a few people. It's doing it to many, many people."

There are currently 11,000 Hoosiers living with HIV or AIDS, with over 3,900 Indiana residents lost to the disease since health officials began tracking it. Alarmingly, officials claim that over one-third of all new HIV infections in the U.S. occur in people under the age of 25.