Sarasota, Fla., AIDS clinic to close

The Sarasota, Fla.-based HIV/AIDS service organization AIDS Manasota is scheduled to close this week due to a fall-off in funding. The agency had operated in the city for 16 years, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports. "A lot of our support in the early years was with people with AIDS and their families in the last few months of their lives," Debbie Roginski, director of AIDS Manasota, told the Herald-Tribune. "A lot of the support left as the drugs got better and they had to think about going back to work." Last year the facility served about 250 people, less than half the number annually during the early 1990s. AIDS Manasota staff are looking for other agencies to support their current clients after this week. The agency's closing makes it one of nearly 65 HIV/AIDS service organizations to shut down since the late 1990s, according to Florida's division of corporations records.