Michigan: Aid for AIDS Is Sparse

The Michigan AIDS Coalition is keeping alive its commitment to HIV prevention, a mission that at least one staffer has been pursuing for decades.

"I came to this work in 1985," said MAC's special grants coordinator Terry Ryan. After the introduction of AZT, "I thought we'd all be home and getting on with our lives by the late '80s," Ryan said.

Instead, some 33,000 people are now living with HIV in Michigan, where both MAC and its prevention message have evolved to address a radically different epidemic. In the last quarter of 2009, 26 percent of the new HIV cases in Michigan were among people younger than 25. Blacks accounted for 60 percent.

Now that the lifespan after diagnosis can be measured in decades rather than months, Ryan says the HIV prevention message has become more difficult. "Fear of the unknown was a huge tool in prevention," he said.

MAC Executive Director Helen Kozlowski-Hicks focuses on reminding people that the infection is still a huge issue in Michigan, with a growing number of youth and women. "The general population thinks HIV has probably gone away," she said.

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