HIV Down South

"The Southern U.S. is not receiving enough federal funding to provide adequate HIV prevention, treatment and support programs,according to a report scheduled to be released on Monday by the Southern AIDS Coalition, the Birmingham News reports. An increasing number of new HIV cases in the South -- combined with"inadequate funding, resources and infrastructure" -- have"resulted in a catastrophic situation in our public health care systems in the South," the report says. Although health officials for years knew that HIV was increasingly affecting the South, they believed the increase in new HIV cases was coming from large cities in Florida, according to Hiers. However, experts concentrated on the Deep South --Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina -- and found HIV cases spreading in rural areaswith large black populations with financial, health and social issues. " Total deaths from AIDS-related causes increased to 190,000 in the South in 2001 through 2005, while the number of such deaths decreased in the rest of the nation during that time period, the report says.

So what are we to do? So far the federal government's response has been to hold down the total amount of HIV prevention and care dollars and slowly begin to redistribute it. At the same time, they have been aggressively pushing more testing. So let me ask you this: what happens if we test more people, find more positives, but don't significantly increase the money available to treat and assist people living with HIV? Well, I think that you know the answer: more rationing of care.

What do you think?