[procaare] Prevention Effort on HIV Transfers Focus to Carriers.

[AEGIS <procaare@healthnet.org>]

Prevention Effort on HIV Transfers Focus to Carriers.
-[AEGIS],(09.29.03).
**************

Prevention Effort on HIV Transfers Focus to Carriers.

For two decades, health officials focused most HIV prevention efforts on keeping high-risk
groups from being infected. However, in a strategic shift last year, California's Office
of AIDS redirected up to 25 percent of the state's annual prevention budget to "prevention
for positives" programs. In April, (CDC)Center for disease control, announced it would
begin heavily favoring programs aimed at preventing HIV-positive people from spreading the
virus.  Programs expected to benefit under the state and federal mandates include:
individual counseling with HIV-positive patients and their partners; routine HIV testing
both inside and outside medical settings (aided by the rapid OraQuick test); mental
health, drug abuse and self-esteem therapy; and efforts to reduce vertical transmission.

Though CDC will not make funding decisions until later this year, many activists expect a
significant funding loss for traditional prevention programs including condom distribution
and community workshops for HIV-negative people.

Trying to keep infected people from spreading the disease is common sense, but research in
the area is limited, said Dr. Tom Coates, a professor of infectious diseases at University
of California-Los Angeles Medical School. The testing focus also comes at a time when
governments have little extra money to help newly diagnosed HIV patients pay for
treatment, Coates pointed out. "I wish we could have waited until there was more evidence"
or enough money to pay for the program, Coates said.

Some experts fear that, even if the policies work for some, they could be dangerous for
others - especially minority groups like African-Americans and Latinos, who often do not
get tested because of social stigma and other barriers.

Vista Community Clinic Outreach Director Fernando Sanudo said California's shift had
forced him to redirect $125,000 of his half-million-dollar annual prevention budget to new
HIV- positive focused programs. Nevertheless, he thinks traditional outreach programs
probably work for his mostly minority clients. "We're still at the point of needing to
educate most of these people about even the most basic aspect of this disease," Sanudo
said.

State and federal health officials insisted that they have not walked away from prevention
for HIV-negative people, but that something new had to be done because infection rates
have started rising again in several groups. For instance, among gay and bisexual men, new
infections rose 7.1 percent last year.

Daniel Costello.
Los Angeles Times

Source: [AEGIS]:Aids education and global information system. Monday, September 29, 2003.
Web:    http://www.aegis.com/todaynews

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