South Carolina to Receive $26.8 Million Grant for AIDS Treatment

U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R) and Jim DeMint (R) on Wednesday announced a nearly $27 million federal grant to help treat South Carolinians with HIV/AIDS.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grant includes $25.6 million for low-income patients in the state. That is good news for the hundreds of residents with HIV/AIDS on a waiting list for publicly funded treatment though the state's AIDS Drug Assistance Program. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 463 people were on the ADAP waiting list in South Carolina as of March.

South Carolina had around 14,000 people with HIV/AIDS through the end of 2006, preliminary data from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control showed. "Certainly, this will assist, especially in the area of the local community programs, because these are the programs that have been cut in the past, over $1 million in the past year," said DHEC spokesperson Thom Berry. "This will help to restore some of the funding that has been lost."

The remaining $1.2 million grant will be divided among three South Carolina community health centers to provide services such as risk-reduction counseling and ongoing HIV care for clients, DeMint and Graham said.

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