HIV Meds Access Campaign- We Want Your Stories

The HIV Meds Access Campaign, which The AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) is part of, is asking people living with HIV/AIDS to share their stories about accessing medication and health care services. These personal anecdotes help us creatively and effectively demonstrate to state and federal lawmakers why programs that provide medication and care are critical for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Additionally, these stories generate media attention on the importance of things like ADAP and the Ryan White Care Act.

As you know, we’re all facing a collective battle at both the state and federal levels when it comes to budget cuts to HIV/AIDS programs. I’m hoping that you can take a moment to think of at least one or two people who have a particularly compelling story when it comes to HIV and health care access, and see if they might be willing to share their story with us here. We would also encourage you to forward this message to your network of colleagues and consumers. Please let folks know that we will not release names to anyone without that individual’s written permission.

Obama & the Fight to End HIV/AIDS

The AIDS Foundation of Chicago's President Mark Ishaug has a great piece up at Huffington Post this morning about President-elect Obama and the hopes for real change when it comes to AIDS policy in the United States.

Ishaug writes:

Today, on World AIDS Day, I wonder what Ron, Michael, Cecil, Charles, Gigi, Larry, and so many other Chicago AIDS activists gone-by would say of the incoming Obama Administration. Would they triumph in the President-elect's message of hope or lament the effects of HIV stigma, complacency, and competing priorities in muting needed change?

The estimated 1.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the U.S.--and the millions more who are concerned about and affected by the epidemic--ponder such questions as the global economy spirals deeper into recession and domestic and international security grows more fragile with each passing day.

Read Ishaug's entire article here, and check out the Obama campaign's fact sheet for fighting HIV/AIDS.

HIVers and Friends Head for the Hill in April

Every year, hundreds of AIDS advocates from all across the amber waves of grain, from sea to shining sea, head for Capitol Hill in Washington, DC to demand adequate funding and sound public policy for HIV/AIDS programs.

LifeLube has gone many a time and highly recommends it.

Be a part of the solution.

Click here to register.

H.I.V. Patients Anxious as Support Programs Cut

August 1, 2007

By ERIK ECKHOLM / NYT

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — In the golden hills of Marin County, it is hard to imagine that free food or emergency cab fares could matter much to anyone.

But for hundreds of people who were thrown into poverty by AIDS, like Wade Flores, 45, a former distributor for a chocolate company who lives alone and is getting sicker and weaker, recent cutbacks seem like a matter of life and death.

“These nonmedical services are what keep people like me alive,” Mr. Flores said.

Here and in many other cities, AIDS advocates say, changes in the distribution of federal assistance for indigent H.I.V. and AIDS patients are causing hardship and deep anxiety.

Congress rewrote the Ryan White Care Act in December in ways that expanded the regions eligible for money and allowed less assistance for support programs like meals and legal aid. Five new cities have joined the list of recipients, but without any increase in overall financing.

Read the rest in the New York Times.