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April 4, 2008
MIXED NUTS IN ALBANY
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Looks tasty—but there are some bad nuts in there |
The 2008-2009 state health budget is basically set, and it's a mixed outcome for poor people living with HIV/AIDS. Legislators took major first steps toward meaningful Medicaid reform, but a failure to fund a long-overdue COBRA rate increase was a step backwards. And advocates still have a chance to lobby the three men in a room to "hold harmless" the New York State AIDS Institute for the across-the-board cuts hitting every aspect of the budget.
"We need Albany to know that in this economically troubled time they shouldn't decrease services for poor people," said Housing Works President and CEO Charles King. "But at the same time, it's important not to overlook the fact that the budget, with its significant health care reforms, will in the long-term have a positive impact for low-income New Yorkers living with AIDS and HIV." The majority of New Yorkers with AIDS receive Medicaid...
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TRACKING CHANGES
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Even this dude would have been confused by the CDC's new data |
The 2006 HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week caused confusion and frantic press releases. It's no wonder: The report stated that newly reported infections in the U.S. rose dramatically from 35,537 in 2005 to 52,878 in 2006.
The rise was cause for concern—and not. On the one hand, the numbers rose because California, Delaware, Illinois, Maine and Washington switched over to a names-based reporting system—the only system the CDC tracks. On the other hand, in the 33 states and five territories that have used the CDC-approved confidential names-based reporting system since at least 2003, newly diagnosed infections have remained relatively stable, though there has been a slight increase in certain subgroups.
Technically, the new numbers don't indicate a rise in newly reported infections or diagnoses, as the Director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention for the CDC Robert Janssen, M.D. said in a statement and Dear Colleague letter issued on March 28 and meant to address the confusion. But then again, this report blows apart the widely cited CDC figure of 40,000 new infections per year, a statistic that hasn't been updated since 2001, and was derived using an indirect method based on now outdated surveillance data...
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THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM
state summit on AIDS
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Eric Bailey, Christine Campbell, LaWanda Burns and Sandra Thompson get recharged during an AAIM 4 Life break by singing 'Going Up Yonder.' |
Things are heating up in Mississippi. Last Friday and Saturday, 75 current and future AIDS advocates—most of whom are living with HIV—gathered in the House of the Lord church in Hattiesburg for the third AIDS Action in Mississippi (AAIM) summit, AAIM 4 Life. Intended to empower participants to get involved in AIDS advocacy, the summit was one of the largest gatherings of people living with HIV that the state has ever seen.
"After three summits, I feel like AAIM is a self-sustaining organization," said Robin Webb, a founder of AAIM who co-organized the first summit three years ago. AAIM was founded in crisis in 2005, when HIV positive people held a community meeting about the lack of state funding for Medicaid and the need for AIDS policy reform in Mississippi. Hindered initially by the effects of Hurricane Katrina, AAIM has rapidly become a force to be reckoned with. In a state where, according to the 2006 CDC study, there are more than 7,300 people living with HIV/AIDS, AAIM has pushed hard for supportive housing for people living with HIV and an end to a cruel drug cap that only allowed Mississippians on Medicaid to have two name brand drugs a month...
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GLOBAL GO-GETTERS
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Virginia Shubert Courage Award honorees Davis and Russell |
Before he became the liberal Messiah, Al Gore was the vice president who energetically supported a Clinton administration policy imposing trade sanctions against countries producing generic versions of AIDS medications. When a handful of activists began repeatedly interrupting his presidential campaign in 1999 to draw attention to this morally indefensible position, Gore agreed to meet with the group —and then convinced Clinton to relax the patent sanctions. The price of medication in Sub-Saharan Africa dropped from $10,000 a year per patient in 1998 to $45 a year per patient today.
Two core members of that activist gang were Health GAP founders Paul Davis and Asia Russell, who say the Clinton-Gore turnaround is one of the achievements of which they are proudest. As, respectively, Health GAP's director of international advocacy and director of U.S. governmental affairs, Davis and Russell continue to work towards Health GAP's goal of eliminating barriers to affordable life-sustaining medicines for people living with HIV/AIDS around the world. Housing Works will honor these two trailblazers in the global AIDS movement with a Virginia Shubert Courage Award at the Fourth Annual Keith D. Cylar Activist Awards on April 17. For tickets to the awards gala click here...
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