City urged to spend more on AIDS prevention

City urged to spend more on AIDS prevention
By Gary Barlow
Copyright by The Chicago Free Press
November 7, 2006



Advocates for more funding for HIV/AIDS prevention in Chicago protested at City Hall Oct. 31, then returned the next day to urge the City Council to increase Mayor Richard M. Daley’s proposed 2007 HIV/AIDS budget.

“We seem to take pride in the fact that the rate of new infections has leveled off in Chicago and the surrounding area at 10 percent,” said Wil Wilson. “To my way of thinking there’s something wrong with that attitude. ÉWe owe to ourselves, our spouses and partners, our children and grandchildren, our friends and neighbors to aim for an annual infection rate of 0 percent.”

The protesters, organized by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, want Daley’s proposed HIV/AIDS prevention budget increased by $1.7 million, from $4.2 million to $5.9 million. Daley’s budget plan would keep HIV/AIDS prevention funding static for the fourth year in a row.

“At the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, we remain concerned that not enough is being done to educate young people about HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases,” said AFC board vice president Marcia Lazar. “I have been dismayed to learn that the (Chicago) Department of Public Health has been forced to eliminate dozens of valuable HIV prevention programs serving youth because of insufficient funding.”

The City Council is scheduled to vote on the 2007 budget by Nov. 15, and Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) quickly rounded up strong support from his colleagues last week to provide the $1.7-million increase. Tunney circulated a resolution in favor of the funding and gathered signatures of support for it from 35 of the City Council’s 50 aldermen.

“I feel very passionate about working with this City Council to make sure HIV funding is a priority,” Tunney said. “When you look at what’s happening on the federal and state level, with inflation, we are losing the battle with HIV infection.”

Other aldermen agreed.

“This is something that’s affecting everyone. There are no boundaries,” said Ald. John Pope (10th). “It’s something we really need to address.”

The City’s HIV/AIDS prevention budget last increased in 2004, jumping from $3.6 million to the current $4.2 million. At the time the city counted 16,377 people living with HIV/AIDS. By last year that number had risen to almost 20,000. The City’s contribution makes up almost 40 percent of Chicago’s overall HIV/AIDS prevention spending, with the remainder coming from the state and the federal government. About half of the money goes to community-based agencies, with CDPH accounting for the other half.

Lazar said that budget is increasingly falling short of the mark.

“Important programs such as school-based education and performing arts help reach our city’s young people with vital and age-appropriate health education,” Lazar said. “These programs have unfortunately been eliminated. As you can imagine, all of the agencies that provide valuable HIV education to young people have been stretched thin without adequate City funding.”

CDPH has also been stretched thin, according to sources within and outside the department. While CDPH ostensibly offers free HIV and STD testing, many CDPH clinics cannot meet the demand for testing and are turning some people away. The problem, sources say, is a lack of adequate staffing and resources, some of attributable to the City’s hiring freeze.

AFC officials say the $1.7-million increase would help to ease that problem by providing improved HIV prevention services to some of the City’s most vulnerable populations