Federal officials will unveil聽today a national strategy designed to ramp up and better coordinate the government鈥檚 attack on the country鈥檚 HIV/AIDS epidemic, an effort to deliver on a Barack Obama campaign promise delayed by the health care overhaul debate and other issues.
Many advocates for HIV/AIDS view the health care bill as 鈥渁 critically important advance鈥� for people living with HIV, according to Chris Collins, director of the Foundation for AIDS Research. But they say many more resources need to be committed to fight the disease, especially considering it doesn鈥檛 get the attention it once did. 鈥淗IV/AIDS as an epidemic has fallen off the radar screen,鈥� said Andy Izquierdo of the National Minority AIDS Council. 鈥淎 lot of people don鈥檛 see it as an issue anymore, even though it鈥檚 hitting some communities of color worse than ever.鈥�
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Today鈥檚 scheduled聽announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services comes as that provide AIDS drugs to patients with HIV grapple with growing waiting lists for the drugs. More than 2,000 patients are on the waiting lists. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced July 8 that she will provide $25 million to states to help pay for the drug treatments, which average more than $12,000 a year. Even so, some advocacy groups said the aid 鈥渇alls short鈥� of the need.
The administration鈥檚 announcement also corresponds with the , the biennial gathering of thousands of HIV/AIDS researchers, activists and government officials, which begins July 18 in Vienna. U.S. action related to HIV is closely scrutinized at the conference.
Although most administrations over the past 30 years have set priorities in the battle against AIDS 聳 including creating policy czars to help spotlight the efforts 聳 advocates said this will be the聽a different type of聽overall national strategy against the disease. The U.S. has required other nations to implement such strategies in order to receive U.S. funding for HIV/AIDS programs.
AIDS programs now exist as a fractured web of resources ranging from community-based clinics that聽offer free condoms to subsidized health services to federal agencies that provide massive funding programs for treatment and prevention. Advocates hope the new strategy will streamline the effort and simplify the process for patients to get such resources as education about the disease, testing, treatment and case-management. Julie Scofield, executive director of the National Alliance of State and聽Territorial AIDS Directors, noted that a variety of federal and state programs seek to help patients, 鈥渂ut not with coordination from the top that can advance our response.鈥�
Collins cautioned, however, 鈥淭here鈥檚 no quick fix for challenges in the domestic response. We鈥檙e not going to achieve the improved outcomes we need overnight. This is a long-term investment.鈥�
Those challenges include prevention and testing, managing co-occurring infections in people with HIV, and the聽higher rates of poverty and homelessness among HIV patients. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that 1.1 million Americans were living with HIV/AIDS in 2006. The federal government is slated to spend $19.4 billion in 2010 on domestic programs and research, according to compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (KHN is a project of the foundation.)
Obama, in a statement last month, said the strategy would focus on 鈥渞educing new HIV infections, increasing access to care and reducing HIV-related health disparities.鈥� Administration officials have held roughly a dozen public meetings with HIV/AIDS patients, activists, advocates and researchers around the country as they鈥檝e formulated the plan.
Meanwhile,聽advocates also say聽they hope the strategy will lead to聽additional funding for programs, though they also聽acknowledged the current fiscal concerns in Washington. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know for sure if there will be funding, but I think we will all be disappointed about how much it is. I just believe we鈥檙e in such a difficult budget environment,鈥� Scofield said.
Nonetheless, Izquierdo stressed, 鈥淚f it鈥檚 a strategy without talk of resources or funds that are going to be allocated, then it really fails to be a strategy and just becomes a plan.鈥�
Collins said his organization will be looking for measurable results: 鈥淲hat we need is a domestic response to AIDS that fits our epidemic and that鈥檚 what we don鈥檛 have right now.鈥� Collins added, 鈥淭he point of the strategy is about outcomes. We have to broaden the way we tackle HIV incidence in this country.鈥�