Greetings! I hope you are all well as summer quickly approaches and that you have some fun summer plans ahead of you.

NCHHSTP staff have been planning for a summer full of health promotion activities, including following up on plans to further program integration and to work on health disparities. In May, we reconvened with African-American leaders to recommit our efforts addressing disproportionate HIV/AIDS rates among the community. We will share the results of this meeting with you soon. Stay tuned!

This month, we will observe National HIV Testing Day (NHTD) on June 27. At the same time, we will continue our fight to eliminate hepatitis B transmission with a new adult vaccination project.

Enjoy your summer, and thank you for your commitment and continued support.

National HIV Testing Day

National HIV Testing Day (NHTD) is an annual campaign produced by the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA) to encourage at-risk individuals to receive voluntary HIV counseling and testing. Since the inception of NHTD in 1995, local and community organizations have promoted HIV testing on June 27.

This year, CDC partnered with the University of Georgia’s New Media Institute to sponsor the creation of peer-generated messages by teams of students from six universities. The students translated evidence-based concepts into 10–30 second “personal” public service announcements (PPSAs) suitable for Web and cell phone distribution. Promotion will include distribution via mobile phones through a partnership with Verizon Wireless and posting on Web social media spaces such as CDC Facebook and CDC MySpace, as well as YouTube.

These innovative messages and other NHTD promotional materials, such as Web buttons and banners, are available for partners to use in their NHTD 2008 activities at hivtest.cdc.gov. You can also register your NHTD 2008 events. Please join in making HIV Testing Day 2008 a success!

Hepatitis B Among Asian Americans podcast is now live on the Web.

In 2007, CDC directed $20 million to 51 state and local health departments for the purchase of adult hepatitis B vaccine.

This immunization funding is significant. CDC studies have revealed that the cost of hepatitis B vaccine can be a major barrier to vaccination of at-risk adults. Guided by the latest CDC recommendations, funds will be used to provide vaccination in public care settings serving high-risk adults, such as STD clinics, correctional facilities, and drug treatment centers. Nationwide, 1,157 settings have joined the initiative. A total of 53,288 doses of hepatitis B vaccine were ordered during the first quarter and 25,000 doses were administered, representing 498 of the settings administering vaccine in the first quarter.