North Carolina Aid for HIV Will Run Short

Poor HIV/AIDS patients in North Carolina will once more be put on a waiting list for the state AIDS Drug Assistance Program that pays for medications for those without insurance, state health officials announced Monday. AIDS activists worry that federal support for such programs is not keeping pace with rising infection rates, especially in the South, where the disease is hitting rural and black communities in growing numbers.

"It's going to make it almost impossible to get new funding," said Patrick Lee of the activist group N.C. Counsel for Positive Living. "As the number of people infected continues to grow, the amount of funding we have to ask for will be so ridiculous that it sets us up for complete failure."

AIDS groups had lobbied for a $214 million increase in federal funding for ADAP, but efforts to win that funding in Congress have failed. Activists expect funding to remain essentially flat, which Lee said is inadequate.

The issue is particularly problematic in the South, where HIV/AIDS incidence is the nation's highest. Federal funding for state services favors states with large metropolitan areas like Los Angeles and New York, because the funding formula was drafted in the early years of the epidemic, when such cities were hit hard. Lee is among a contingent of activists and public health officials who will attend a Southern AIDS Coalition meeting in New Orleans this week, hoping to call attention to the problem and to ratify a manifesto calling for more federal money.

North Carolina is expected to get more than $12 million in federal funds for its ADAP this year. The state contributes another $8.3 million, and drug companies offer rebates, bringing the total state ADAP program to about $25 million, according to Steve Sherman, AIDS policy/ADAP coordinator with the state Department of Health and Human Services.

"There continue to be serious unmet needs," Sherman said. About 3,400 people are enrolled in North Carolina's ADAP.

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