Nevada: Most Vulnerable to Lose HIV Therapy

The University of Nevada School of Medicine's Nevada Care Program (NCP), which works to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission, has been eliminated by the state Department of Health and Human Services. Responding to a possible $1.2 million shortfall in HIV/AIDS program funding next year, state officials terminated the $350,000-a-year outreach. Projections forecast an increase in both medication costs and the number of clients accessing the service.

NCP was launched in 2006, when four Clark County infants contracted HIV. Although 40 more infants have been born to HIV-positive mothers since then, none has acquired HIV.

Dr. David Gremse, chief of the medical school's pediatric program, recently wrote to Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) to ask for help in funding NCP.

"The prevention of potential transmission of HIV infection to these 40 infants who were born to HIV-positive mothers through the Nevada Care Program's efforts resulted in the program saving the state $12,124,000 over the past two years based on the cost of providing medical care to these children had they become infected," Gremse wrote.

On Friday, Berkley responded that she is "hopeful that the financial resources will be found to keep this important program in place."

NCP Director Dr. Echezone Ezeanolue said that while preventative drugs for mothers and babies will still be available after the program ends, its office space and four medical assistants will not be. That office space afforded the women much-needed privacy, while the assistants regularly followed up with area hospitals to ensure the women were receiving the necessary care, he said.

"With those being let go, it will be difficult to ensure that other hospitals handle these cases in the right way," Gremse said. "In the past, these cases fell through the cracks."

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