Cuomo: NY To Dedicate $200M More In Fight Against HIV/AIDS
ALBANY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New York State will dedicate $200 million more to efforts to end the AIDS epidemic by 2020.
The new funding is on top of $2.5 billion New York is already spending to encourage testing and prevention and support for those living with the disease.
In April, Cuomo announced a new blueprint intended to decrease the number of AIDS cases in New York State from 3,000 per year to 750 per year by 2020. The plan, developed by a task force of stakeholders, included new goals like diagnosing those who did not know they were infected and supressing HIV rates.
The new funding will expand housing assistance for people with HIV and enhance services at "one-stop'' STD clinics in the city.
Cuomo also announced another milestone in the fight against HIV/AIDS: for the first time in decades, there were no reports of infections passed from mother to child in the past year.
Earlier this month, actor Charlie Sheen revealed to the public that he was HIV positive.
On Nov. 28, New Yorker Victor Mooney completed a major milestone by rowing across the Atlantic Ocean -- an effort sparked by Mooney's drive to raise AIDS awareness after losing his brother to the illness in 1983.
Mooney set off from the Canary Islands in June 2014. The 21-month journey ended at Brooklyn Navy Yard on Saturday.
Cuomo said 153,000 New Yorkers have lost their lives to AIDS in the last 35 years.
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