Activists Say AIDS Funds Low in South; Federal Agency: "No Discrepancy"

The Southern AIDS Coalition is hosting the Southern AIDS Conference, a two-day meeting for more than 150 health officials and community service providers that began Wednesday in New Orleans. Leaders hope to kick off a grass-roots campaign to obtain more health funding for Southern states, where new HIV infections have greatly increased in recent years, especially among blacks and women in rural areas.

"We're trying to wake people up," said Evelyn Foust, director of the HIV/STD Prevention and Care Branch for North Carolina's Division of Public Health. "A whole new generation of the South is being infected and we've got to work harder as Southerners for basic quality care."

Foust's office prepared a report saying that the federal government allots an average of $5,625 in health care funds for each AIDS case across the nation, while the average case in the South receives $5,184. The $441 difference would mean that for every dollar received by AIDS patients in the rest of the country, the average AIDS patient in the South receives a little more than 92 cents.

"Is there a funding discrepancy? Not that we are aware of," said Kevin Ropp, spokesperson for the Health Resources and Service Administration, which distributes much of the federal AIDS funding. Ropp said that Deborah Parham, associate administrator for HRSA, is attending the conference to listen to advocates' concerns.

Jeff Graham, director of Atlanta's AIDS Survival Project, said he is attending the conference to promote cooperation among health care workers from state to state. "While stigma is still associated with HIV infection throughout the country, I think you have an even deeper level of stigma in the South because of the reluctance to discuss the issues of sexuality and substance abuse and poverty," Graham said. "Now is the time for us to work together as Southerners and address this epidemic in our own way."

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