For Immediate Release
Media Contact:
Justin Burke -
213.201.1525
WORLD’S FIRST INTERNATIONAL SPANISH-LANGUAGE HIV/AIDS MAGAZINE
MARKS FIFTH YEAR
APLA’s Impacto! Transnacional Reaches Latin America and the Caribbean
Los Angeles, CA, November 28, 2006 – On the eve of World AIDS Day, community leaders, activists, writers and donors will gather to acknowledge the impact of Impacto! Transnacional, the Spanish-language HIV/AIDS magazine from AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) that marks its fifth anniversary of publication this month.
A quarterly publication with a circulation of 15,000, Impacto! Transnacional is distributed to 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, from Mexico to Argentina, Costa Rica to Puerto Rico.
The fifth anniversary issue, published this month, focuses on two other important anniversaries: the 25th anniversary of AIDS in the United States and the 10th anniversary of protease inhibitors, which used in combination with older drugs became known as the HIV “cocktail.”
“Impacto! is more than a magazine – it’s a movement,” said George Ayala, APLA’s director of education. “With all the in- and out-migration between Los Angeles and regions to our south, Impacto! has become a vital community organizing tool. What began as a way to get basic information to people locally has become a force for change in many impacted communities.”
APLA began to ship limited copies of Impacto! Transnacional to Latin America in its second year of publication. Agencies in the region soon began to contact APLA about receiving copies of the magazine, which they regarded as a vital resource for information. Eventually, Impacto! editor Omar Baños began to travel to the region, helping to draw people together and support fledgling HIV prevention activities and conversations about the impact of the disease on communities there.
Baños was central to the planning of the first-ever summit on HIV prevention for Central American and Caribbean gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM), held last May in Honduras. Participants in the summit are developing the first regional HIV Prevention Action Plan focused on MSM.
A native of El Salvador, Baños was recently profiled as a leader of the future in Los Angeles by La Opinion.
Community leaders, contributors to the magazine and donors will gather at Vermont Restaurant on November 29 from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm.
To download copies of back issues of Impacto! Transnacional, please visit the publications page of APLA.org.
AIDS Project Los Angeles, one of the largest non-profit AIDS service organizations in the United States, provides bilingual direct services, prevention education and leadership on HIV/AIDS-related policy and legislation. Founded by four friends in 1982, APLA is a community-based, volunteer-supported organization with local, national and global reach. For more information, visit www.apla.org.
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