Access Aids

23,643 Virginians were living with HIV on September 30, 2011.  And VDH says there are 900 new infections each and every year.

We Must Emphasize Prevention: 

HIV is a preventable, chronic disease that requires consistent lifelong treatment. Yet, the number of Virginians living with HIV does not have to increase at all.  Effective prevention can drop the number of new cases each year.

Treatment = Prevention:

“Now we have absolute, confirmed data,” said Anthony Fauci, MD, who heads the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “We just need to take that data and run with it. The idea of the tension between treatment and prevention, we should just forget about it and just put it behind us, because treatment is prevention.”

But over 1,000 Virginians do not have ready access to HIV medicines:

Since November 2010, the ADAP waiting list grows every month. Now over 1,000 Virginians are on the waiting list.

State funding plus federal funding supports ADAP and is available to low income HIV-positive Virginians without private health insurance Medicare or Medicaid.

Along with ADAP, new strategies are needed to reduce the number of uninsured HIV-positive Virginians.

VDH is seeking approval for a new program to buy health insurance

Every new case of HIV costs another $380,000 in new health care costs over that person’s lifetime. With over 1,000 new HIV cases every year, that’s an added $380 Million in preventable health care costs every year.

Treatment is key to better health for each HIV-positive person and key to preventing the spread of the virus to others.

State Funds are necessary to Assure Access for Everyone:

Please actively SUPPORT for BUDGET AMENDMENTS:

Item 293 #1h (O’Bannon) and #1s (Howell)

Adds $1,000,000/year to eliminate the waiting list and assure that every Virginian needing help for HIV meds will get those drugs

Why ADAP Matters:

• ADAP and the other programs that Virginia has to help persons living with HIV are funded with a combination of state and federal funds.
• Treatment = Prevention. HIV medications lower viral load, reducing the likelihood of transmitting the virus to others.
• ADAP reduces economic and racial health disparities. Too often people living with HIV are forced to decide which needs they will meet -- food or medication? rent or heat?  Adequate ADAP funding will help ensure that those needs can also be met.
• ADAP keeps HIV– positive people, healthy, reducing the need for costly hospitalizations and preventing irreversible and unnecessary damage to their health. When a person with HIC gets sick the annual cost of medical care is almost 3 times more expensive or $23,000 more costly per person per year.
• ADAP promotes employment by keeping people living with HIV/AIDS healthy enough to work, pay taxes, and take care of themselves and their families
• Prevents people from becoming disabled by AIDS and needing to rely on SSDI