AHF Applauds Senator Harkin For Championing HIV Testing In Stimulus Bill

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Article Date: 30 Jan 2009 - 7:00 PDT

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AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the nation's largest AIDS organization, today lauded Senator Tom Harkin (D, IA) for championing the funding of HIV testing in the current Senate stimulus bill. The Senate bill allocates $400 million of the over $800 billion stimulus package for HIV and STD testing and prevention, money which could go to hiring nurses to work in emergency units and community clinics to do HIV and STD testing as well as fund the purchase of American-made HIV test kits.

"The funding of HIV and STD testing and prevention in the stimulus bill is actually a very prudent use of US taxpayer dollars, and we applaud Senator Harkin for his leadership on the issue," said Michael Weinstein, President of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "This stimulus money could go to hire additional nurses and counselors to work in emergency units and community clinics to do HIV testing as well as pay for HIV testing kits that are manufactured right here in the US. In short, this funding would both create jobs and support the purchase of American-made products-two primary goals of the economic stimulus recovery package."

Earlier this month, a delegation of Florida AIDS patients and RNs from AIDS Healthcare Foundation traveled to Washington to lobby for the appropriation of $300 million in stimulus funding for HIV testing. During 55 Senate and Congressional visits, the nurses and AIDS patients told their own stories of living with, or caring for people with HIV/AIDS in the hard hit Southern US, a region which reports 36% of the nation's AIDS cases. The AHF delegation lobbied Congress for funding for an expansion of the current CDC HIV testing program to do over three million HIV tests in the next two years in order to find over 60,000 people currently infected with HIV but who don't know it. AHF estimates that doing so will prevent at least 6,000 new infections, ultimately saving the government billions of dollars in medical costs.

"The lifetime cost of one HIV-infected individual's treatment and care is estimated to be $600,000," added AHF's Weinstein. "If we succeed in preventing 6,000 new infections by vastly improving our HIV testing and prevention efforts with support from the stimulus package, we will ultimately save more than $3.5 billion in the lifetime care and treatment costs for those individuals."

In 2006, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) updated its HIV testing guidelines in an effort to reduce the HIV/AIDS epidemic nationwide. The new 2006 CDC testing guidelines recommend the routine testing of all Americans ages 13 to 65 for HIV in emergency unit and community clinic settings. Unfortunately, this admirable goal has gone largely unmet due to lingering questions as to who covers the costs of such testing.

In addition, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study published in March 2008 Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome noted that persons living with HIV (PLWH) who were aware of their HIV status were more likely than those who are unaware of their status to take precautions to prevent HIV transmission to their partners. The study, undertaken between 2001 and 2004, found that the increase in the proportion of people living with HIV (PLWH) who were aware of their serostatus could be credited with preventing nearly 6,000 HIV infections during that three year study period.

About AHF

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the nation's largest AIDS organization. AHF currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 95,000 individuals in 21 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation