Health Equity
The HIV/STD/TB (HST) Section will commit to promoting and achieving health equity in all its work. HST shares the
Public Health Division's definition of health equity: the absence of unfair, avoidable, or remediable difference in health among social groups. Achieving health equity requires:
- the equitable distribution of resources and power resulting in the elimination of gaps in health outcomes between and within social groups,
- use of an intersectional lens: Intersectionality asserts that multiple social categories used to group people (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status) intersect at the micro level of individual experience to reflect multiple interlocking systems of privilege and oppression at the macro, social-structural level (e.g., racism, sexism, heterosexism), and
- solutions that look beyond traditional health care and government systems to embrace community wisdom and focus on broader social determinants of health (e.g., education, economic opportunity, transportation, housing).
We are leading with racial equity.
Racial equity is the condition that would be achieved if one's racial identity no longer predicted a person's life options and outcomes. Racial equity is one part of racial justice. This includes elimination of policies, practices, attitudes and cultural messages that reinforce differential outcomes by race or fail to eliminate them. Racial equity ensures all persons receive what they need to thrive regardless of racial or ethnic identity.
World AIDS Day 2022
December first is
World AIDS Day. This annual day is an opportunity for people worldwide to recommit to ending new HIV infections, show support for people living with HIV, and commemorate those who have died from an AIDS-related illness. Founded in 1988, World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day.
See local events honoring World AIDS Day at www.worldaidsdaynw.org.
Governor Kate Brown has proclaimed December 1 to be World AIDS Day in Oregon.
Read the proclamation here.