Posted on 09/28/2007 6:18:05 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
300 cases are estimated to be in Victoria area
Twenty-five years after AIDS was formally given a name, Texas and the rest of the country still fail to designate the money needed to prevent it and HIV, a Dallas representative said on Wednesday.
It's one reason why infection rates are on the rise, especially among women, Rep. Rafael Anchia, a Democrat, told the Dallas Urban League on Wednesday.
Anchia's remarks reverberated to Victoria, and to an area that's estimated to have more than 300 patients with HIV/AIDS.
"Despite the fact we've had 25 years of experience with this disease, something is wrong with how we're approaching it," Anchia said by phone, just hours after his speech. "Instead of seeing declines in infection rates, we've seen increases."
There are an estimated 1.2 million in the U.S. with HIV/AIDS, Anchia said. Almost 300,000 don't know they have it.
In Victoria, Hispanics are most at risk, a local health department manager said.
An additional 40,000 people a year are newly diagnosed with the illness nationwide, Anchia said. African American male teens and Hispanic females are most impacted.
"It's an issue of significance that's talked about too little," he said.
The representative presides over a Dallas district that is comprised primarily of minorities, a group, he said, that is made up largely of those with low incomes.
Like low-income groups in Victoria, such people often rely on free or subsidized health care.
"Federal funding has been cut, it seems, almost systematically so that fewer people are being tested for AIDS," Anchia said. "The federal dollars for testing serve low-income populations."
Paul Kelliher is the special services manager for the Victoria City-County Health Department. His staff received $114,000 in funding to counsel and test the first 1,500 people who walk through his doors over the next 16 months.
But they always need more funding, he said.
About 100 people in the seven-country Crossroads have been diagnosed HIV/AIDS, and the majority live in Victoria, Kelliher said.
But because others with HIV/AIDS have private insurance, or travel elsewhere for care, it's thought that number could be as great as 300.
Anchia believes this is disturbing, especially considering his remarks were also made on the one-year anniversary of recommendations made by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC hopes to make HIV screening routine and voluntary, a normal part of medical practice.
So, why, after 25 years, hasn't HIV/AIDS testing become routine at doctors' offices and hospitals?
"I don't know," Kelliher said. "To me, it's just good, common sense. It's like going in to have your annual checkup."
Anchia said budgetary constraints, and the stigma of the illness, are part of the problem. Most don't worry about HIV/AIDS, and instead focus on heart health and cancer.
"We have not maintained the same focus on HIV and AIDS awareness and education as we had in the 1980s," he said. "But last year we spent $3.5 billion to tackle cancer over 10 years."
Gabe Semenza is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6519 or gsemenza@vicad.com, or comment on this story here.
And it's all Ronald Reagan's fault!!! Reagan personally raped and infected every gay man on the planet!
“I guess you all have forgotten what it is like to be a teenager in lust, thinking you will live forever and that nothing will hurt you. Crosses all lines, Christian and Buddhists, young and old, rich and poor.
Be careful before you make such prideful announcements - you may have to deal with it in your own families.”
—
You omitted one, maybe two, word(s) from your righteous sermon. Pick from the following:
a. gay
b. drug-user
Do you still feel compassion for those same people when they accuse you of not working to prevent their infection, have public marches in our biggest cities proclaiming this, infer that this indifference is part of a conspiracy to destroy them, and then STILL insist on their right to CONTINUE in their promiscuous behavior, all the while demanding that YOU foot the exorbitant medical bill for their life-long treatment?
No. Just because I have compassion for people who contract AIDS doesn't mean I am under any illusions that I OWE THEM ANYTHING.
People who get themselves into bad situations because of their own poor choices in life have only themselves to blame.
But it STILL doesn't do my heart any good to see people suffer for their mistakes,
ESPECIALLY since I am SO dependent on God's mercy to rescue me from my own foolish choices in life.
Here is all you need to know to not get HIV / AIDS:
So, if you can successfully follow those steps, you should be free and clear of HIV and AIDS. Feel free to reproduce the above and distribute it: I claim no copyright!
What's the HIV/AIDS rate among monogamous, heterosexual, non drug users?
“Texas and the rest of the country still fail to designate the money needed to prevent it ......”
MONEY????? Hell, no money is required.....simply tell the queers to sit down and keep their mouths shut! ;-\
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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