February 16, 2007
ISLAND FEVER
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Puerto Rico is Facing AIDS Disaster |
Puerto Rico took a hopeful step forward in addressing its exploding AIDS crisis this week when staffers from several Latino U.S. Representatives' offices met with Puerto Rican PWAs and advocates in Washington, D.C. Puerto Rico's AIDS services infrastructure is on the verge of crumbling due to political corruption. Nearly 30,000 people with HIV live in Puerto Rico, where the HIV death rate is more than three times higher than in the U.S.
The urgently needed get-together was organized by the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC), and the Latino Commission on AIDS, as well as an aide to Rep. Hilda Solis' (D-CA). Attending the meeting were staffers from the offices of representatives Jose Serrano (D-NY), Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) and Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), all members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Dire news
Housing Works national field organizer, Larry Bryant, made it to the meeting and said it was moving to hear from folks who had come so far to make their case for assistance. "Frankly, their situation reminds me of how bad it is right here in D.C.," says Bryant. "There are people dying preventable deaths. The direness of their situation came through loud and clear." Bryant plans to lend advice to several Puerto Rican AIDS service organizations in the coming weeks.
According to NMAC, Puerto Rico is facing three potentially catastrophic problems.
San Juan's Title I Ryan White funding has been jeopardized by a corruption scandal. The FBI, the IRS and the Office of the Inspector General raided the city's government offices, confiscating all its materials. Ryan White funds are frozen, so the San Juan Eligible Metropolitan Area's 20 community-based organizations, which cover 32 municipalities and more than 2,000 patients, have not received payment since March 2006. Some have been forced to layoff staff, reduce their services or shutdown operations altogether.
Title II funds are also in danger, thanks to administrative snafus in the central government's ability to disburse funds. Early last week, a major AIDS consortia announced that it will close due to lack of payment, leaving the country's northeast corridor, from Carolina to Humacao, without services, and impacting approximately 12 ASOs and over 900 patients.
Lastly, according to advocates on the ground, the island has a de facto ADAP waiting list, which the health department is hesitant to admit exists. The advocates estimate that there are at least 131 ADAP patients waiting for medication. In addition, there are many other PWAs who qualify, but have not applied for ADAP. ADAP will no longer take additional patients, which means new patients will have to wait.
Hope for the future
Several national U.S organizations also were present to voice their concern and lend there support to the PR work addressing the HIV/AIDS emergency, including the Whitman Walker Clinic, the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD), National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA), The AIDS Institute, and the National Puerto Rican Coalition (NPRC). All present voiced a unified concern that this is a crisis of imminent danger that can be resolved with federal help.
"You like to think that, when you see people come from so far and present such devastating facts, that lawmakers will take action," Bryant says.