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)