Vermont AIDS group skips federal funding due to new CDC regulations

Vermont CARES, an AIDS service and advocacy group in Burlington, Vt., this week announced it will not apply for almost $100,000 in federal funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention due to concerns about new federal regulations that may compromise the privacy of agency clients, the Burlington Free Press reports. Officials with the group also say the CDC's new push for HIV prevention programs that aim to encourage HIV-positive people to not expose others to the virus aren't the most effective ways to slow HIV progression in rural areas of the state and that the agency disagrees with the CDC's push for abstinence-only education. Because HIV prevention funds are allocated in a three-year cycle, Vermont CARES won't be able to apply for the CDC funding again until 2007. The funds would have accounted for about 8% of the agency's annual budget. Vermont CARES executive director Kendall Farrell says that if the agency had accepted federal money, it would have been required to "disclose potentially identifying information" of people seeking anonymous HIV antibody testing under new CDC regulations. Farrell also says that new CDC guidelines could have required the agency to present information in education programs that question the effectiveness of condoms in preventing HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, a move the agency opposes.