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Posters like this focused on the benefits of HIV testing for future mothers, who could pass the virus to their newborn babies at birth. Early testing and prenatal care made a difference: when HIV-positive mothers took advantage of the resources available to them, their children were less likely to contract the disease. A group of concerned mental health and medical professionals in San Francisco formed the AIDS Health Project (AHP) to support a growing community of people who needed emotional and psychological support as well as medical treatment. The AHP provided crucial, groundbreaking support in getting people tested: the organization offered the first large-scale testing programs along with resources to help people manage either a positive or negative result. This campaign used frank, simply put descriptions of the multiple costs of not knowing one’s HIV status, stressing the financial, personal, and family consequences of remaining ignorant.

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