To mark World AIDS Day 2015, Governor Cuomo spoke at the Apollo Theater in New York City, where he received the World AIDS Day Leadership Award from the End AIDS NY 2020 Coalition.  The Governor made a series of announcements during the day regarding the next phase of New York’s plan to End the AIDS epidemic, including a commitment of an additional $200 million towards HIV/AIDS efforts to end the epidemic by 2020.  

"The goal is to end the epidemic and that’s why New York was the first state to give it a date – a target date – 2020 as the date to end the AIDS epidemic and end it once and for all – that’s success!”                 

Governor Andrew Cuomo, December 1, 2015

    In a press release issued before the event, Governor Cuomo highlighted several accomplishments of the state, including the launch of the ETE NY Dashboard:

New York State launched an ETE Dashboard system – a public website to broadly disseminate information on the progress of New York's groundbreaking initiative to end the AIDS epidemic. The Dashboard system displays the latest information about New York State’s AIDS epidemic including information on, HIV incidence and prevalence, as well as HIV prevention, testing, and care. Funded by DOH, the ETE Dashboard was designed and is maintained by Hunter College and the School of Public Health of the City University of New York, in collaboration with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Other accomplishments included, national recognition of New York State’s uptake in PreP, 12 months with no reported cases of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS, and NYS’s increased commitment to helping individuals with HIV/AIDS obtain affordable housing. With the new funding, additional financial and programmatic commitments will be made to:

1. expand the availability of affordable housing and providing additional housing assistance for those living with HIV;
2. make life insurance available to individuals living with HIV between the ages of 30 and 60 years old;
3. invest more funding into Medicaid Managed Care Plans; and
4. invest more funding to help enhance services at “One Stop” STD clinics in New York City.

To listen to, watch or read the Governor’s full remarks, click here.