🚀 go-pugleaf

			       Rally
                To Protest State Budget Cuts for HIV/AIDS
                    Wednesday, September 30, 1992
		          11:30 AM -12:30 PM
           County Morgue (4th and Grant Streets, Pittsburgh PA)
           March to State Office Building
           Sponsored by HIV Emergency Lobby Project (H.E.L.P.)

Pennsylvania spends about $0.49 per year per citizen on AIDS.  This
includes treatment for people living with HIV, prevention and
educational services.  The Commonwealth ranks 26th in spending, but
8th in number of cases (Dec 1991 CDC data).  The 11 counties which
make up the Southwest Pennsylvania region (including Allegheny County
and Pittsburgh) receive less funding per AIDS case than any other
region in Pennsylvania.

The Bureau of HIV and AIDS in the Pennsylvania Department of Health
has a staff of 40.  In February, the Commonwealth delegated
distribution of Federal Ryan White funds and management of projects to
seven regional coalitions, each with its own procedures and policies.
There has been no decrease in the staff of the state-wide Bureau.

In July, the Pennsylvania Department of Health made a decision to
defund the regional coalitions, requiring them to use federal funds
earmarked for services to people with HIV/AIDS to pay for
administrative costs.  The effect of this decision is that the $90,000
allocated to the 11 counties in the Southwest Pennsylvania region from
the Federal Ryan White fund, $50,000 will be used for services while
the remain $40,000 will pay for administration.

Pennsylvania has no state-wide plan for handling HIV/AIDS.

Pennsylvania does not have a prevention and outreach plan for people
at high-risk.

Pennsylvania does not have an education plan dealing with HIV.

Pennsylvania does not have a plan for testing and providing care for
people in prisons that have HIV/AIDS.

Pennsylvania does not have AIDS clinics.

Pennsylvania does not have an adequate response for addicted
individuals with HIV disease.

In the past two years, some of the programs the the state has defunded
are:
 - the only local program designed to instruct public school educators
on AIDS;
 - the only program to provide transportation to Pittsburgh for
medical care from rural areas;
 - the only non-government program for testing and counseling
individuals for HIV.  (The Allegheny County Health Department does not
perform anonymous/confidential testing in violation of State law).

The Health Department has announced that in 1993 it will no longer
fund agencies that perform counseling, case management and support
services to people living with AIDS.  Research indicates that each
case of AIDS costs $150,000 to treat.  The savings to the state from
defunding testing, outreach and counseling is $20,000.