Georgia Agency Allocates $1 Million for New HIV Tests

A $1 million Georgia state budget allotment will open the door for some people with HIV to receive advanced testing that will screen for drug resistance and help improve drug therapy, according to officials and AIDS activists.

The budget for the Georgia Department of Community Health, which was approved Aug. 29, includes more than $1 million for HIV resistance testing. The testing funds are part of the state agency's budget of nearly $5 million, which now goes to Gov. Roy Barnes for his approval. From there, the allocation will be presented to the state legislature early next year as part of the budgeting process. The $1 million allocated for resistance tests would be enough for two tests per year for HIV-infected state Medicaid clients who need such testing. People with low viral loads and high T-cell counts would be healthy enough to forego the tests, said Jeff Graham, executive director of the Atlanta-based AIDS Survival Project, which lobbied for the funds.

"It's not uncommon for people to be on a regimen that has three or four or five antiretroviral medications on it," Graham said. "Because there are so many . . . antiretroviral medications that are on the market today, it is very helpful to have some sort of guidelines as to what drugs will work and which ones the virus is likely to be resistant to," Graham said. "Resistance testing is really for a smaller number of people, usually those people that have been on therapy for a longer period of time and in which the therapy that they're currently on is beginning to fail."

Department of Community Health board member Dr. Gary Edelman said the board arrived at the $1 million figure by consulting with AIDS Survival Project, the CDC, the drug company that administers the tests and the Florida Medicaid program, whose budget already includes money for resistance testing.

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