Communications Officer – Treatment Action Group

TAG’s Project Areas include HIV basic science, vaccines, prevention, treatment, and cure; HCV; and TB:

• HIV – TAG works with the HIV community, scientists, government, and the pharmaceutical industry to advance the discovery, development, and delivery of safe, tolerable, and effective biomedical prevention and HIV treatment modalities across the globe, and to support the science necessary to find vaccines and cures for the disease. TAG is working with advocates, policymakers, researchers, health care providers, and government officials to identify frameworks for ending HIV as an epidemic on national and state levels, through collaborative focus on the National HIV/AIDS Strategy; continued engagement in, and replication of, the New York State Plan to End AIDS; and a commitment to comprehensive HIV prevention service delivery for at-risk populations. TAG is also developing a series of case studies evaluating models of effective community mobilization in the U.S., to help identify best practices associated with increased demand for prevention and care services and grassroots advocacy, and to ensure the longevity of these programs in the era of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).       
• Basic Science, Vaccines, and Cure: TAG’s Basic Science, Vaccines, and Cure Project works with HIV community members, scientists, and policy makers to enhance public understanding of the basic science of HIV infection; address gaps in HIV research; critique research efforts; foster cross-disciplinary collaborations; accelerate research into HIV pathogenesis; and speed the development of effective immune-based therapies, preventive medicines, a vaccine, and a cure.
• Hepatitis and HIV: TAG’s Hepatitis/HIV Project works with the HCV and HIV communities, scientists, government, and drug companies to make lifesaving information along with safer, more tolerable, and more effective hepatitis C treatment available to all who need them. New treatments for HCV are changing the standard of care, and TAG is providing leading-edge community information and educational materials targeted to people with HCV, as well as those coinfected with HCV and HIV, while leading global campaigns for lower drug prices and universal access to curative treatment.
• Tuberculosis and HIV: TAG’s TB/HIV Project works to strengthen global and U.S.-focused advocacy to increase funding and ensure ambitious and improved research, programs, and policy to ensure universal access to quality services for people with TB and HIV; to catalyze global leadership to accelerate momentum toward universal access for high-quality TB and TB/HIV services; to accelerate and increase funding and progress in R&D for better tools to prevent, diagnose, and treat TB; and to accelerate progress in program scale-up and research to eliminate TB as a global public health threat. The worldwide effort to control TB is failing. The ongoing spread of TB, including drug-resistant strains, presents a grave threat, especially to HIV-positive people in countries with high rates of both diseases. HIV infection makes a person much more susceptible to TB disease, and it fuels the increase in TB cases, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, the spread of TB that is drug-resistant demonstrates the failure of established strategies for TB control. Due to the inadequacy of current TB diagnostic tools and treatments, as well as poor coordination of TB and HIV services, TB still is the leading cause of death for HIV-positive people globally.