In Recognition of World AIDS Day: HIV Still Touches Close to Home
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December 1, 2010 (New York City) — It is World AIDS Day. While headlines periodically remind us of the growing epidemic of HIV/AIDS worldwide, it is easy to forget about the impact of the illness closer to home. More than 50,000 people in the United States are newly diagnosed with HIV every year. Most of these people are poor, and most of them are people of color. Shockingly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently found that in poor urban areas of the U.S., 2,100 of every 100,000 heterosexual adults is living with HIV.
“We cannot ignore the CDC’s recent finding that in a place like New York City, the poorer you are, the more likely you are to contract HIV; the numbers of poor people living with HIV are staggering,” said HIV Law Project Executive Director Tracy Welsh. “We see every day how HIV-positive people are struggling to meet their basic needs.”
Low-income people living with HIV/AIDS must choose daily whether to spend money on food, medication, rent, or transportation to medical appointments. The struggle to survive becomes a full-time occupation. “People who are living with this disease aren’t being afforded opportunities to make their lives better;” notes Dawn Y., a 46 year old HIV-positive mother of five who returned to college two years ago.
As budgets are slashed at every level, the safety net for people with HIV/AIDS in the U.S. is weakening. Across the country states have instituted waiting lists for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, meaning that people in this country who have been diagnosed with HIV are forced to go without medication. If treatment is no longer guaranteed, then other support systems for low-income people living with HIV/AIDS, like subsidized housing and child care, food and transportation programs, and legal and case management services are in similar peril. Yet supportive services are known to improve health outcomes. Investment in support services, as well as economic empowerment programs are essential elements of a comprehensive domestic HIV prevention strategy.
HIV Law Project believes that all people deserve the same rights, including the right to live with dignity and respect, the right to be treated as equal members of society, and the right to have their basic human needs fulfilled. These fundamental rights are elusive for many people living with HIV/AIDS. Through innovative legal services and advocacy programs, HIV Law Project fights for the rights of the most underserved people living with HIV/AIDS.
