-- Fewer than one in eight high-risk people have access to HIV testing and counseling

-- Mercy Corps' Senior Program Officer for HIV/AIDS available for interviews

PORTLAND, Oregon - As the world commemorates World AIDS Day on December 1, the global humanitarian agency Mercy Corps reminds the public that "prevention is power." The organization is calling attention to the staggering lack of access to prevention methods in developing countries - a significant cause of infection for the 4.3 million people who became newly infected with HIV last year.

"In 25 years, we've come a long way in the war against HIV/AIDS," said Jessica Quarles, Mercy Corps' Senior Program Officer for HIV/AIDS. "But this is one battle we're still losing. Too many of the people most at risk of contracting the virus lack the basic tools necessary to prevent HIV/AIDS."

Although the world has made major advances on testing, treatment, and mother-to-child transmission, more than 11,000 people still contract the virus each day. Fewer than one in five people at risk of contracting HIV has access to effective prevention. Worldwide, fewer than one in eight people at high risk can find a nearby clinic offering HIV testing and counseling, and fewer than one in ten people at high risk have access to condoms. Other statistics tell an equally grim story:

* In Southeast Asia, home to one of the highest rates of new infections, fewer than 15 percent of young women know how to protect themselves.

* In Africa, fewer than one in ten women have access to treatments to keep their newborns from inheriting the virus.

* Universal access to effective prevention would avert an estimated 28 million new HIV cases in the next ten years, and an estimated $24 billion in treatment expenses.

"When it comes to solving this global epidemic, developing new technology is only half of the equation," Quarles added. "We must ensure that all the tools at our disposal are made available to the people that need them the most."

Around the world, Mercy Corps supports innovative and effective programs that prevent and mitigate suffering caused by HIV/AIDS. Mercy Corps focuses on prevention with at-risk youth, vulnerable migrant communities, and mainstreams HIV/AIDS into its other development work. The agency is operating HIV/AIDS-related programs in ten countries: China, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Nepal, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Liberia, Niger, Guatemala and Honduras. In Liberia, for example, Mercy Corps is working with Nike and an innovative non-profit group called Grassroot Soccer to train local soccer coaches on how to help young people avoid infection. In Nepal, Mercy Corps is supporting a World AIDS Day event hosted by Nava Kiran Plus - a group led by HIV-positive activists - to bring their prevention message to young people at risk. And in the US, Mercy Corps is a founding member of The ONE Campaign, a grassroots effort to engage the public and lobby governments to spend more on access to prevention.

"AIDS: Halting the Spread" is the second segment in Mercy Corps' new Silent Disasters campaign, a year-long, agency-wide effort to generate public awareness and funds for the world's under-reported humanitarian crises.

Learn more about the global HIV/AIDS crisis and what Mercy Corps is doing about it: http://www.mercycorps.org/silentdisasters

Purchase an HIV/AIDS Awareness Kit online: http://www.mercycorps.org/mercykits/974

About the Silent Disasters campaign: The world knows no shortage of calamity. Earthquakes. Floods. Wars. Many times these events - because of their sheer destruction, their political consequences or the shockwave they send through our lives - capture widespread public attention and quickly grab the headlines. Too often, however, a crisis just as severe is overlooked, forgotten or even ignored. These are the world's silent disasters. They are persistent, unresolved crises of great magnitude that, for whatever reason, have failed to merit the attention and resources necessary to successfully address them.

Mercy Corps currently addresses several silent disasters. In the impoverished West African country of Niger, where a continuing food crisis threatens the health of more than a million children, Mercy Corps is providing nutritious food to mothers and working to strengthen local health authorities' detection and response to child malnutrition. In Uganda and Colombia, countries where long-running civil conflicts have forced millions to flee their homes, Mercy Corps is helping displaced families meet their basic needs while preparing for a brighter future - and the return home. Mercy Corps is also addressing silent disasters that know no national boundaries: the growing pandemic of HIV/AIDS and the looming specter of mass youth unemployment as more than one billion new job seekers enter the job market over the next decade.

These are the world's silent disasters - and they're affecting millions of ordinary people each day.

Mercy Corps works amid disasters, conflicts, chronic poverty and instability to unleash the potential of people who can win against nearly impossible odds. Since 1979, Mercy Corps has provided $1 billion in assistance to people in 82 nations. Supported by headquarters offices in North America, Europe, and Asia, the agency's unified global programs employ 3,200 staff worldwide and reach nearly 10 million people in more than 40 countries. Over the last five years, more than 90 percent of the agency's resources have been allocated directly to programs that help people in need. For more information, visit www.mercycorps.org.

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