Long Island to Lose $1.3 Million in AIDS Funding

On Wednesday at an emergency session for AIDS service providers and consumers, an activist warned that the Long Island region could soon lose nearly half of its federal HIV/AIDS funding. Cheryl Mchunguzi, associate director of the Long Island Minority AIDS Coalition, called the meeting at the group's Lindenhurst headquarters.

The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act of 2006, which passed the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in May and should come before the full Senate in two weeks, will slash the Nassau/Suffolk region's $3.1 million in federal HIV/AIDS funds by $1.3 million, Mchunguzi said. The cuts would result from a funding formula change that allocates money based on the number of people living with AIDS between 2000 and 2004.

The area's losses would be "the most drastic in the nation," said Mchunguzi. "People diagnosed with AIDS before 2000 are forgotten, and we can't even count the people we treated in 2005 and 2006. We are being punished for doing a good job."

Mchunguzi further noted that 75 percent of the remaining $1.8 million would be earmarked for core medical services, leaving just $450,000 for support efforts like housing and case management.

In contrast, New York City, where 4,330 new HIV/AIDS cases were diagnosed in 2004, is projected to see a gain of $15 million under the new formula.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who cast the only committee vote opposing the Modernization Act, on Wednesday asked Senate leaders to postpone taking up the bill until the provisions penalizing New York can be addressed.

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