This September will mark a decade for a major fundraiser for Aids Volunteers Incorporated or AVOL. Details about this year’s Dining Out For Life event were unveiled Wednesday morning at Lexington city hall.
The premise remains the same. Eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner at any of 56 participating restaurants and at least 25% of sales go to AVOL. The eating out fundraiser is scheduled for Thursday, September 12th.
AVOL Kentucky Executive Director Jon Parker says the fundraiser will help the Lexington based organization expand its reach.
“Hep C and other sexually transmitted infections along with HIV continue to be prominently an issue and so AVOL has actually expanded its mission to focus on those other conditions as well,” said Parker.
The AVOL director said the relatively new medication pre-exposure prophylaxis is one important aspect of the effort to eradicate HIV infection. “The idea that folks who are living with HIV who are virally suppressed can’t transmit the virus to other people, that’s relatively new as well. So, we want to get the information out because if people get tested and they are connected to care they’re going to become virally suppressed and we’ve just made it a scenario where people can’t transmit the virus to other people,” said Parker.
Parker says federal organizations have set 2030 as the target date for the eradication of any new infections of HIV. The AVOL director says it starts with an HIV test to be directed to proper care and treatment.
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