Stimulus: Florida AIDS Patients, RNs Lobby Congress for Funding for HIV Testing

During 55 Senate and Congressional Visits This Week, AIDS Healthcare Foundation Delegation Seeks  Funding for HIV Testing in Hard-hit Southern US; Region Reports 36% of Nation’s AIDS Cases

By: AIDS Healthcare Foundation

Washington - January 12, 2009

As the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to have a disproportionate—and devastating—impact throughout the Southern United States, a group of AIDS patients, nurses and medical providers from Florida are visiting Washington, DC this week for a series of meetings on Capitol Hill with Senate and Congressional leaders to lobby Congress to include funding for HIV testing throughout the hard-hit South as part of the nation’s economic stimulus legislation currently being drafted. The group, all of whom are patients or medical providers of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), will lobby Congress for funding for an expansion of the current Centers for Disease Control (CDC) HIV testing program to do over three million HIV tests in the next two years in order to find over 60,000 people currently infected with HIV but who don’t know it.  AHF estimates that doing so will prevent at least 6,000 new infections, ultimately saving the government billions of dollars in medical costs. The patients and medical providers lobbying Congress are from AHF’s Positive Healthcare program in Florida, the first disease management program of its kind in the United States specifically designed for Medicaid beneficiaries diagnosed with HIV or AIDS.

“The AIDS epidemic is an appalling situation across the Southern United States. The number of people who do not know their HIV status, the lack of access to testing and medical treatment, widespread stigma and discrimination—all have added up to a recipe for disaster in the region,” said Michael Weinstein, President of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “Through PEPFAR, President Bush’s landmark global AIDS program, the US has saved millions of lives and shown its generosity and compassion to the world. Here in the US, the Deep South remains our nation’s battleground in the fight against AIDS, and we need to do far more in this fight here at home. Calling for stimulus funding for the CDC to improve HIV testing efforts throughout the South is both prudent public health and prudent public policy.”
 
“People are not being routinely tested for HIV nationwide despite clear guidelines from the CDC that routine testing is the best practice. And many people with HIV, but who do not know it, particularly in the South, go to emergency rooms and clinics over and over again, but do not get tested unless—and until—they show symptoms of HIV/AIDS,” said Michael Kahane, Bureau Chief, Southern Region, US for AHF. “This is unfortunate, because when people do not know they have HIV or AIDS, they are far more likely pass on their infection to others.  Also, when they finally get diagnosed, they are often very sick, so they can’t work, care for their family, and it is often much harder and more expensive to get their health back.”

“It is widely understood that knowing one’s HIV status helps prevent new infections.  When individuals know they are HIV-infected, they take steps to reduce risk and protect others,” said Tara Barreto, RN, Director of Positive Healthcare Disease Management in Florida. “People who have had the opportunity to be tested and have tested positive can also begin taking lifesaving antiretroviral treatment, which helps them manage their disease and reduces the amount of virus in their system, which renders them much less able to infect others.”

The AHF contingent lobbying Congress for funding for HIV testing includes six Florida HIV/AIDS patients, nearly a dozen AIDS nurses, medical providers and other AHF officials. Members of the group will meet with legislators and staffers in 55 Senate and Congressional offices throughout the week.

AIDS in the South: Background Statistics
(from the Southern States Manifesto: Update 2008)
Note: The South comprises 36.4% of the population of the U.S. through 2006.

• Of the top 20 areas (includes 18 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico) with the highest AIDS case rates in 2006, 11 (55%) are in the South.
• The South has the highest number of adults/adolescents living with AIDS in the U.S.
• The number of persons living with AIDS has increased from 1993 to 2005 at a greater rate in the South than in the other regions of the U.S.
• The South has the highest number of people dying from AIDS in the U.S. The number of persons who died from AIDS-related deaths increased from 2001 to 2005 at a greater rate in the South than in other region of the country.
• Of the 20 metropolitan areas with the highest AIDS case rates in 2006, 16 (80%) are in the South.
• The southern states have a higher percentage of new AIDS cases among persons living in non-metropolitan areas than other regions of the U.S.
• Of the 20 states with the highest rates of persons living with HIV (not AIDS) in 2006, 11 (55%) are in the South.
• Of the 15 states with the highest rates of new HIV diagnoses, nine (60%) are in the South.
• Prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS are further complicated in the South by the high prevalence of HIV-infected individuals living in rural areas. Southern states comprise 65% of all AIDS cases among rural populations.

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About AHF
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the nation’s largest AIDS organization. AHF currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 94,000 individuals in 21 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia.