California: County AIDS Funding Partially Restored

Yolo County received no state funding for HIV testing, education, and prevention after state budget cuts earlier this year hit such programs particularly hard. However, the county did retain funding for surveillance and charting physician reports of HIV infection, said Sheila Allen, its HIV program coordinator.

Using tobacco settlement funds, the county will provide $200,000 to the Health Department, $70,000 of which will partially offset its state HIV/AIDS budget cuts.

"That's about half of what we had before," said Allen. "What we tried to do is really focus in on high risk."

The county HIV/AIDS program has re-instituted its jail-based testing and counseling effort, and it is rotating education and testing at drug treatment centers. Free testing at the Health Center was not restarted. "We were servicing people; all our slots were full but they were all low-risk."

Since HIV infection cannot be cured, "That's why education and prevention is the best thing," Allen said. "You learn how to keep yourself safe and not get it to begin with. The counseling and testing is so important because if we can get them into treatment early they can lead a full life."

Not all county supervisors supported the use of tobacco money, known as Pomona funds, for the Health Department. "We don't have an appropriate level of reserve for our county finances right now," said Sup. Matt Rexroad (District 3). "Those Pomona funds could have been spent on anything, and we continue to spend money we don't have."

Back to other news for October 2009

Search the Newsroom archive