While any number of AIDS advocates point to the stigma associated with the disease as one of the primary challenges of fighting and ultimately eliminating the pandemic, Toni Young discounts this. Young, executive director of the Community Education Group in Southeast, has come to the position she holds after years as one of the soldiers on the frontlines fighting the AIDS epidemic in the District of Columbia. “I’m probably an outlier in this regard,” she said. “I don’t believe that stigma – negative core beliefs about HIV or the people who have it – is the issue. I think that people believe it’s someone else’s disease, someone else’s problem.” “They think they don’t need to be aware or cognizant because it’s someone else. That’s what we see, not the derogatory state about the individual or people. The thought is ‘I don’t need to fight that fight because it’s not coming over here in my world.’” But such assumptions are misguided and the consequence of that thinking helps fuel the spread of the disease, said Young, a fourth-generation Washingtonian. “In order for us to end [this disease] we have to get away from “isms.” Married or not, if you’re sexually active, you’re at risk. It’s not a question of how you do it, it’s if you do it. My job is to ensure that you know your status and use condoms. If you want to do it off the chandeliers, fine, go ahead.” “People get bogged down in how people do it and whom they do it with. We have to work on the resource end and talk to people who’re sexually active. If you’re sexually active, I need to talk to you.” Young said her staff has face-to-face contacts with about 30,000 clients and 10,000 of those take HIV/AIDS tests each year. She credits a coalition of academic, local government and local community partners for coming together to battle “a pandemic of epic proportions.” As she discusses the HIV/AIDS landscape, the challenges she and her agency face in transforming that landscape, Young is effusive, ebullient and feisty. She speaks staccato-style with words pouring out like a fusillade of bullets, with pointed words and phrases peppered with the occasional expletive highlighting the depth of her conviction. Young comes across as pragmatic but philosophical, thoughtful and blunt. Where others see doom and gloom or describe the circumstances surrounding the pandemic in the starkest, most dire terms, Young sees opportunity. “In the winter, people get depressed, drink more and engage in more destructive behaviors,” she said. “… it’s not about these troubling economic times. The analogy for this is that people see it as deep, dark winter. Guess what? I’m built for this. We’re built for survival and struggle. This has happened before and it might happen again. There’s opportunity out there. Our staff has to sit down, strategize and make sure that we can do better.” “This is what we do – bring it. We’re going to create something out of nothing in the winters with whatever resources are available.” At the end of the day, there remains a great deal left to be done. And the easiest and best way to defeat this disease, she said, is through knowledge and information, said Young. “There is a lack of awareness of where HIV is in the District,” Young said. “And the surveillance reports say that a high number of African-American women in D.C. have HIV/AIDS. True enough there’s a problem but the other piece not being looked at is male partners. The assumption is that MSM [men having sex with men] had sex with all these women but we have a population of [heterosexual] men living with AIDS.” “We have to scale up outreach, testing and educational efforts for those men as well. They’re saying ‘it’s not me.’ They’re believing the same narrative that ‘I’m not either one so it’s not me.’” A sensible, strategic use of all available resources is key, she explained. “We need to increases the resources to bring, maintain and ensure that medicines are available to people free or at a low cost,” Young said. “Is it possible? It’s certainly feasible. We have the science to end it, we have the methods to end it. We know how to end it, but will we pay to end it?” “We have to test individuals, get them into care, maintain them and reduce the viral loads. With less infections, there is less of a likelihood of infecting anyone else.” Young, 48, acknowledges the enormity of the task of combating HIV and AIDS in communities east of the Anacostia River and the numbers and statistical data bear that out. “We have a lot of work to do east of the river,” she said. Results of a recent study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that three percent of the city’s residents have the disease, a total that moves the disease into the category of a pandemic. And according to the District’s 2011 'HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD and TB Epidemiology Report,' – released in June – since 2008, the number of people with new infections doubled with black women representing the segment of the population most affected. Heterosexual women living in Wards 7 and 8 make up about 90 percent of newly diagnosed cases. MSM remains the leading way in which the disease is transmitted. Intravenous drug use and heterosexual transmission are not far behind, according to the report. The good news is that there was a dip in the overall number of new AIDS cases in the District from four years ago and there have been noted improvements with infected individuals receiving care more promptly. The data indicates that 76 percent of infected people received care within three months of diagnosis in 2010. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 ruling in support of the Affordable Care Act, this is a great time to be involved in health care, Young said. “This is one of the most unique and opportune times to be in health care,” she said. Young said she was pleased the District of Columbia is hosting the upcoming AIDS conference, and this will provide the opportunity for the city to showcase the progress that has been made in combating the disease. About 25,000 delegates and more than 2,000 media representatives from around the world are expected at the 19th International AIDS Conference at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on July 22-27. “It is symbolic and a sign of President Obama’s commitment,” she said. “If it wasn’t for him lifting the ban, the conference would not be here.”