People with HIV or AIDS in Chattanooga are getting their medications through alternative funding even though a state and federally funded drug-assistance program has reached capacity, public health professionals said this week.
"No one is going without meds," said Rosemary Readus, medical care manager for AIDS outreach with the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department.
In November, Tennessee had to create a waiting list for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which is funded by federal and state money, for the first time since the program began here in the early 1990s.
The program helps pay for medical services and drugs that can keep the disease under control. Those medications can cost up to $1,500 a month, advocates say.
But clients who are on the waiting list still can get help, said Tom Rucci, director of case management with the health department. One way is through prescription assistance programs, which provide discounts through drug companies.
The state also is seeking federal supplemental funding, officials have said.
In Hamilton County, 18 people were put on the AIDS waiting list, said Jerry Evans, assistant executive director of the nonprofit HIV/AIDS help agency Chattanooga Cares.
He said nine came off the list last week, thanks to extra state funding.
Tennessee has the longest list among the nine states with lists, according to a report from the San Francisco-based Flowers Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit helping to address unmet health care needs. As of this week, 179 Tennesseans are on the list, according to state data.
The size of Tennessee's waiting list could be due to people from border states seeking care in cities such as Memphis and Chattanooga, Ms. Readus said.
Nationally, assistance programs for people with HIV and AIDS are being stretched. More diagnoses due to more screening for HIV and AIDS, combined with limited funding and widespread job loss, have led to an increased demand for assistance. Altogether, 418 people are on an ADAP waiting list, up 167 percent since last year, according to the Flowers Heritage Foundation.
Executive Director Gregory Edwards said the foundation has partnered with the National Minority AIDS Council to raise money to help get medicine for people on waiting lists.
Historically, funding for HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment has disproportionately gone abroad, he said.
The funding partners are "almost ignoring the fact that there was a really severe and devastating issue here (in the U.S.) and in our inner cities," he said.
DISEASE PREVALENCE
In 2008, 14,901 people in Tennessee had HIV or AIDS, up 28 percent from 2003, according to the state health department.
Advocates for people with HIV and AIDS hope that the waiting list for a drug-assistance program will keep enrollees vigilant about getting re-certified every six months so they aren't bumped onto the waiting list.