LETTER: People with HIV still need our help

In 1991, Congress passed the Ryan White Care Act as a mechanism to fund services to persons living with HIV/AIDS. This legislation, named after a young boy who battled the disease and was rejected by his community, had broad, bi-partisan support in both houses of Congress. In fact, the bill passed the US Senate by a vote of 95 to 4.

Over the past 20 years, all across our country, AIDS Service Organizations (ASO’s), Community Based Organizations (CBO’s) and other public health entities have utilized Ryan White and other similar funding to provide life saving treatment to persons living with HIV/AIDS and to provide education and prevention initiatives.

Here in South Carolina, each region of our state has at least one organization that provides compassionate, non-judgmental care to more than 10,000 persons living with HIV/AIDS. Those services include intensive primary prevention programs that equip HIV+ persons with the knowledge and skills they need to “stop the disease where it is” and make difficult behavior changes that lead to fewer persons becoming infected.

One important aspect of helping people with HIV and protecting the public health of all of our citizens is our AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). Part of the Ryan White Care Act, ADAP programs give life saving medications to HIV+ persons that do not have health insurance and that cannot pay for the drugs. The importance of these medications for someone living with HIV/AIDS is obvious – they literally save the life of the person taking them.

The hidden benefits of the program that impact every tax payer are not as obvious. For example, an HIV+ person connected to a Ryan White program and taking the appropriate medications will cost the health care system significantly less than one that is not receiving consistent care. The probability of an HIV+ pregnant mother passing the virus on to her child is only 2 percent if she is taking her medications. In addition, medications are preventive – persons that are on their medications have lower transmission rates because they have less virus in their system and because they are learning steps to protect others.

We are at a critical crossroads in South Carolina right now. Our ADAP program is running out of funding, and we are once again placing persons with a life threatening illness on a “waiting list” to receive their medications.

In the meantime, the public health of all of our citizens will be threatened due to the lack of treatment and education being provided by those that need us the most. In this most difficult economic time, we are calling on our state to make this program a top priority for funding. The Ryan White programs in other southern states are getting significant support in the state budget, and we need the same in South Carolina.

What was true for 95 out of 100 Senators back in 1991 is true today - whether we are motivated by compassion for our fellow citizens, by concern for our future fiscal condition or by the public health of our communities, funding these programs is the right thing to do.