New coalition
launches campaign to reauthorize Ryan White Act

Four national AIDS organizations have launched the Ryan White ACTION (AIDS Care and Treatment In Our Nation) Campaign to raise public awareness of the need to renew the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act. The Ryan White Act, which expires September 30, funds federal and state government programs for poor, uninsured, and underinsured HIV-positive Americans. Congress is unlikely to renew the program by September 30, but the program will continue to operate in its current form over the next several months until legislation is approved.

The RWAC coalition consists of the AIDS Institute, the HIV Medicine Association, the American Academy of HIV Medicine, and the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors. The launch of the campaign was announced Monday by Jeanne White-Ginder, the mother of the late Ryan White and a board member of the AIDS Institute.

"We urge the Congress to move expeditiously, and, more important, for the Congress and the Administration to provide adequate funding for the CARE Act so that everyone who is in need of these lifesaving medications and medical care, no matter where they live, can have the chance to stay alive," White-Ginder said in a press release.

RWAC is concerned not only about timely approval of a new bill but also in broadening and expanding the existing programs under the CARE Act, say campaign members. The program has been flat-funded for the past several years, which coalition members say does not keep up with changes in the spread of the HIV epidemic in recent years. New infections tend to be concentrated among poor and minority populations and people without health insurance. And while urban areas continue to account for the largest concentration of infections, the virus is rapidly spreading into rural areas, particularly in the South.

The media campaign will begin immediately and run until Congress has renewed the Ryan White Act for another five years, organizers say. (Advocate.com)