Options for people in South Florida

Courtesy of http://www.nextnature.net/?p=1051

When I was looking for an image that suited the topic for this post, this image came up rather quickly. Bugs have made me queasy all my life, so seeing some blown into dog-like proportions and having sexual contact with people struck me as both intelligent and direct. If one walks into sex with no caution, there is no telling what poison is going to get into one's system.

Upon researching what organizations here in Florida offer men and women with AIDS and HIV a chance to fight back and live as fulfilling a life as possible, the first misconception I cleared was that having AIDS and being HIV+ are not exactly the same.
As the website aids.org clarifies in its Fact Sheet, a person is declared HIV+ when the person's body creates antibodies to fight the HIV virus and tests recognize those antibodies. But they might not be sick with AIDS at all, sometimes for many years. If "opportunistic infections" appear (an infection that would not appear if the person's immune system were working fine), the person is declared as sick with AIDS.

I went straight to Google looking for organizations that provide relief for people with AIDS and HIV+. After trying different word combinations, I came across the website for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation This organization spawned in Los Angeles in 1987 as a group of activists and artists saw people infected with HIV+ "literally die on the streets." Originally called the AIDS Hospice Foundation, it changed its name in 1990 to reflect its goal to expand medical care for these men and women. Since then AHF has been expanding, opening thirteen clinics in the California area and setting foot in seventeen countries. In Florida AHF opened a clinic in Jacksonville and last January 26 opened another one in Fort Lauderdale, in the area of Wilton Manors.

According to Joseph Terrill, public policy coordinator for AHF, the organization has thrived over these past twenty years but its "taking politicians to task" has got it into trouble. Though he declined to mention a specific situation, Terrill cited the occurrence as an example of what could set AIDS counseling and relief organizations behind: their dependence on the government, for funding or otherwise.

There exists a similar sentiment around the Ryan White Program, an initiative that started in Florida back in 1991 and is aimed to provide people with AIDS and HIV+ support and treatment through service providers affiliated to the program. The program is funded by the Department of Health and Human Services. Health Resources,a and Services Administration. Theresa Fiano, coordinator for the program, said that right now it is taking "level funding," which means that it is not receiving the increases in funding it had seen prior to 2002. Since the war effort started, funding for these "discretionary" programs has diminished and, though it will not terminate any of the program's initiatives, this turn of events does show that politics still can determine whether people get the help they need, not the need for help itself.

However, at a more local level, support for people with AIDS and HIV+ has not dwindled. A glance at the list of service providers under the Ryan White program shows twenty-four centers that provide those infected with services like prescription drugs, case management, counseling and treatment, outreach services, and legal assistance. According to Holly Alitrandi, attorney working for the agency that seemingly exclusively offers the latter service, Legal Services of Greater Miami Inc., a great majority of the cases they deal with involve AIDS and HIV+ patients reclaiming their right for pensions and insurance payments. And as they continue working, the number of cases has increased each year.

Another center offering help for AIDS patients, the Borinquen Health Care Center Inc., has been working for nearly thirty-five years providing their services predominantly to minorities too poor to receive help otherwise. Despite their time in service, only until this time they will open a second center in the area of Kendall. Just like Legal Services of Greater Miami, their intake of patients only grows with each year that passes.

That AIDS and HIV+ patients can find centers where help is available is evident, but the proportion in which new cases arrive in comparison with the steady but not overtly growing funding that these centers receive leave questions behind: Are these places and the programs that fund them really safe? How long before spending for other programs catches up with the budget allocated to these places and, as more infected people walk through the doors of clinics and pharmacies, less can be provided? Only time and wise spending from government departments can tell, but as both numbers fluctuate the way they have over the years, a wake-up call is nothing short of overdue.

AIDS in South Florida: a prelude.

http://current.com/items/77150612_aids_in_south_florida

Courtesy of Current.com

For a disease that has claimed thousands of lives and which receives extensive coverage in the news, AIDS still runs rampant today in society and people have grown only slightly wiser. It has killed 25 million people worldwide since 1981 and current estimates say 40 million people are infected, according to a 2006 report by UNAIDS. Still, several people believe that, just because they do not know anyone who apparently has it, it is not happening right in front of them. In my case, I feel I am one of them even though I would want to change that perception.

I have lived in South Florida for six years now and cannot say I remember having met anyone who is HIV positive. Of course, that says a lot more about my (possibly willful) ignorance on the matter rather than an actual perception of the issue in this area. But a quick search in google.com reveals that, indeed, HIV is a problem in the area and people are actively working to help ease the situation of infectees and advice people to practice safe sex at all times. Still, there will always be people who will either not heed these warnings or remain ignorant until it is too late to do anything. I've tried to include a video where a man interviews random people and asks them what they do about it. Their answers seem largely logical (wear protection at all times, abstain), but one gets the feeling that they are parroting what they have been taught and, at any moment, they could forget what they just said here.

I didn't count with enough time to dig up hard, recent data (the UNAIDS website was difficult to navigate and some of the files didn't open in my PC), but I am sure that digging just a little will open a plethora of information that will paint the AIDS situation as one that deserves all the attention it can muster from those who want to make a difference. For now I will start from scratch, looking up numbers and reading articles about it.

If you cannot see the video, here is the address