Ryan White cuts
will hurt HIV services in Florida

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has cut its Ryan White CARE Act grant to Palm Beach County, Fla., by $1.2 million to $8.3 million, a 13% reduction from last year's $9.5 million grant, reports the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. AIDS activists call the funding cut devastating and say programs providing case management, nutrition assistance, transportation, substance abuse counseling, mental health assistance, and other support services will be dramatically scaled back because of the loss of federal AIDS dollars.

The cuts will force the county's Comprehensive AIDS Program, which provides case management to 2,700 HIVers, to remove as many as 400 clients from its case-management rolls. CAP's food-distribution program will have to curtail services to about 800 low-income HIV-positive people, who will be forced to turn to local food banks that already are overburdened due to demand caused by last year's Gulf Coast hurricanes, say CAP officials.

Medical care services in Palm Beach County will not be affected by the cuts, but AIDS activists say the reduced funding to support programs in the county will still have a negative impact on the health of poor HIVers. (The Advocate)