North Carolina: AIDS Funding Unfair, Feds Told

At a news conference Sunday at Raleigh-based Shaw University, North Carolina's office of HIV/STD Prevention and Care (HSPC) and patient advocates urged the federal government to distribute Ryan White CARE Act funds equally. RWCA provides primary health and support services to non- and under-insured HIV/AIDS patients, and it recently expired. The act's reauthorization was the subject of the news conference, which coincided with an HSPC-organized visit by Christopher Bates, the Bush administration's acting director of HIV/AIDS policy.

"The way that the funding is distributed now is unfair for North Carolina," Evelyn Foust, HSPC's head, said of the act. An administration proposal to cut "double-counting," in which states with large cities and established epidemics receive more funding per person than other states, would benefit North Carolina, Foust said. "As the epidemic has moved into the rural areas, the funding has not kept up."

After the news conference, about 200 people attended a public forum at Shaw to discuss how RWCA's reauthorization and other forthcoming policy changes might affect the state.

Of North Carolina's estimated 28,000 residents with HIV/AIDS, more than three-quarters are African American, according to 2005 state epidemiology data. The state reports about 1,700 new cases each year. About 800 otherwise eligible people remain on a waiting list for help from the state's AIDS Drug Assistance Program.

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