On the day of Elizabeth Taylor's passing, the following situation reminds us that we must be vigilant in carrying on her work to eradicate AIDS in our community.
In my state of South Carolina, state budget cuts are causing a huge problem in so many areas. And one area is when it comes to the treatment of HIV/AIDS:
More here.
In my state of South Carolina, state budget cuts are causing a huge problem in so many areas. And one area is when it comes to the treatment of HIV/AIDS:
About 7,400 South Carolinians are diagnosed with AIDS, according to the most recent figures from the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the state’s rate of infection is higher than the national rate.
With South Carolina facing a $700 million budget shortfall as the state begins the long recovery from the Great Recession, activists for patients with some chronic medical conditions like HIV and AIDS are finding little support to add funding to programs, as lawmakers cut health care expenses to balance the budget.
The waiting list for the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which currently covers 2,262 people, has grown to 527 people as of Friday, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, which administers the program.
“I want to believe that they listen, I don’t know if they do,” Smith said of state budget writers. “I hope somewhere in the back of their mind that they are feeling some kind of something for the people.
“People are afraid that they may not get their medication.”
. . . South Carolina’s AIDS infection rate — 15.6 cases per 100,000 people — is higher than the national rate of 11.2 cases per 100,000 people, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The rate of new S.C. cases was the 11th-highest in the country in 2008, at 18.7 per 100,000, while Columbia had the seventh-highest rate of AIDS diagnoses among cities with population of 500,000 or more.
(Julia) Craft and other advocates argue it is cheaper to pick up the cost of drugs than to treat the associated opportunistic diseases that most often kill AIDS patients, among them pneumonia, skin and immune system cancers and bacterial infections. In addition, someone on drug therapy is less likely to transmit the disease — and the cost of treatment — to others.
A report compiled by the Health Law and Policy Clinic of Harvard University recommended a number of strategies to expand HIV and AIDS programs, such as enlisting faith-based groups to encourage testing, treatment and to support federal and state programs. The report also recommends South Carolina apply for a waiver to allow Medicaid coverage of those with HIV.
So far, the the Harvard report has been ignored.
More here.
No comments:
Post a Comment