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Subscribe to RSSOnly a quarter of Americans infected with the AIDS virus are getting effective treatment, according to a U.S. government report released Friday -- and the youngest patients are the worst off. The numbers could worsen if states don’t broaden health care as called for under the 2010 health reform law, scientists worry.
It’s the first comprehensive look by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at who is getting effective care, and it doesn’t paint a promising picture. The findings raise even more alarm bells as study after study presented at the International AIDS Conference in Washington this week show that treatment can help stop the spread of HIV.
“The majority of people living with HIV in the United States are not on antiretroviral treatment, not in stable care,” Dr. Kenneth Mayer of The Fenway Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston told a news conference. “They need to be in care first and then able to get treatment.”
The study finds that just over a third of HIV patients have steady care -- 34 percent of African-Americans, 37 percent of Latinos and 38 percent of whites.
Younger patients are the least likely to be getting the cocktails of drugs that can keep them healthy and help keep them from infecting others. Just 15 percent of those aged 25-34 had the virus suppressed to desired levels, compared to 36 percent of those aged 55-64. Only 22 percent of young adults were even getting HIV drugs to treat their infection, the CDC found.
There’s no cure for the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS and no vaccine. HIV has killed 25 million since it first started spreading globally in the early 1980s, and more than 33 million people are infected worldwide. About 1.1 million people in the United States have HIV, and the CDC estimates that 20 percent of them don’t even know it.
“We have to continue to raise the alarm,” CDC’s top AIDS official, Dr. Kevin Fenton, said in an interview. “We have to find that sense of outrage.”
The same factors are driving high transmission and poor treatment rates among some U.S. groups: poverty, a lack of access to medical care, and a lack of education about what causes HIV and what people can do about it. Policymakers need to understand that treating people with HIV saves money, Fenton said.
“What we now know is that treating HIV is cost-effective. For every dollar spent, you save $2,” Fenton said.
Fenton said the U.S. should pull out the stops on providing condoms, counseling, testing and treatment.
“We need to ensure that states have policies that support routine HIV testing,” Fenton said. “Clearly, this is going to be more challenging in some states than in others.”
Top AIDS experts in the U.S. say no matter what people may think about the moral implications of some of the behavior that leads to HIV infection, it will benefit everyone to get people tested, treated and counseled about controlling their infection.
“Every state really must enact the Affordable Care Act,” said Dr. Judith Aberg, president of the HIV Medicine Association and an AIDS expert at New York University. “States need to fund HIV treatment and prevention. We need to continue this fight.”
Governors of several states have said they will not expand Medicaid, required by the health care law, because they cannot afford it. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that states can decide whether to abide by that provision. States refusing expansion now include Texas, Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana. Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance plan for the poor, currently does not cover most low-income adults with HIV. AIDS activists say it’s essential to controlling the epidemic to get coverage for young adults with HIV, and at risk for HIV.
Opening this week's International AIDS Conference was Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the most influential, leading scientists in the decades-long search for a cure. Fauci discusses how far we've come and how far we have to go in the battle against HIV/AIDS.
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A lot of people don't have sufficient insurance and don't get proper treatment for life threatening diseases. Why does a gay person with aids matter more than someone with cancer? This whole gay-crusade agenda by the media is really ridiculous and manipulative.
Because it's not just gay men who have HIV, it's young men and young women, old men and old women, heterosexual and homosexual, children and adults. To believe that HIV is a disease of gay men is irresponsible.
If you think that the government is the answer to our problems you are dead wrong. These political idiots.... no matter what party... couldn t run a whore house in a war zone and make a profit. They would spend everything they have now and all the projected future profits too, this country is doomed. But I cannot hink of any place else I would rather live because everywhere else is worse.
Why does this surprise anyone? Many disabled veterans lack sufficient health care, I think in part due to the lack of knowledge on "how to work the system." Not to mention disabled adults and children.
You are absolutely right Lela, which is why I am against obamacare. I have a cousin who was wounded in combat and is being treated at the VA. His spine is so damaged that when he stands he is bent at an almost 90 degree angle. Because that is not a threat to his life, he was told that surgery to correct his condition is an elective. By the way, the government does acknowledge that his condition was the cause of a land mine exploding and damaging his body. How is that for a slap in the face to a man who was crippled while fighting for his country. That kind of "care" is what is in store for the rest of us when obamacare is unleashed in full force. I only pray that the U.S. public comes to their collective sense in November and sends that clown out of town.
Sorry folks! We had $150 Million ready to help ... but Hillary sent it to African yesterday. Oh well ...
Why do so many not have health care? Because they are not rich enough to enrich health insurance companies or pharmaceutical companies, no other reason.
Mor...lack..of intelligence...what an STUPID, uneducated, brainwashed statement. Pull your head out of obozo's @$$ and out of the ether.
Be careful of that two-edged sword. The reason we have the drugs to fight this and other diseases is because there is a profit in creating them. No one realizes a company will spend hundreds of millions on research and development to come up with a handful of compounds of which only one will work. After vigorous testing it is released to the public. I have no problems with companies trying to regain their money and make a profit. Without that profit, there is no incentive to create new drugs and if no new drugs are created, where do that leave us?? The government getting involved will only quell the number of helpful medicines created. Any wonder that the nations with socialized health care do not invent new medicines?
Gays did not start the AIDS epidemic, but fell victims to it because of their lifestly of promiscious sex with multiple partners. The fact remains the AIDS virus was dectected many many decades ago in straight community. Do your historical homework, please.
Well I hope they keep dropping like flies, save the tax payer money.
75% of the USA has inadequate health care !
And you want to spent millions of more dollars on what, some thing immoral and preventable, let them die.
They want to play queer games let them pay for it. In the mean time the tax payer is the one getting screwed.
Simple buy insurance, support the affordable health care act, and stop being a free loader, the rest will take care of itself, like you will stop spending a fortune on emergency room visits from uninsured unhealthy freeloaders. People who cannot afford insurance will get help, from me and the rest of you.
CBO say's it will save us Trillions over time.
Doesn't appear Britain is complaining about their health care. GOP out now!!!
Obama - 2012
Every single day, I am thankful to live in Canada, with healthcare there, when I need it. When I am sick, I can go to a doctor when I need to, whether it is for a really bad cough I've had for several days, stomach problems or who cares what. I will not receive a bill from my doctor unless it's something like a life insurance request or missing an appointment. If my doctor feels that I need a greater degree of testing and care then she can provide, then I am referred to the appropriate clinic, hospital or specialist.
Think of how much my little Urgent Care Centre visit and the aftermath of it would have cost without it being covered by my government:
-Blood work
-EKG
-Chest X-Ray
-The visit itself
-Urinalysis
(Aftermath...)
-referral to heart specialist
-Stress Test
-Echocardiogram
DIAGNOSIS of a congenital heart defect that would likely now exclude me from ever receiving health insurance in a pre-Obama 2012 United States.
Someday, I will likely need heart surgery to repair the defect. I am obviously trying to hold it off as long as possible by maintaining the best health possible that I can. When that day comes, everything, with the possible exception of medications that I would take once discharged from hospital-will be covered.
When my mother had cancer-all was covered, from CT scans to ultrasounds, to chemo medication to hospital stays, to bloodwork, to her PICC line...All we paid for was her Boost (and we even sometimes got some donated from the hospital clinic), and some medications such as Zantac and Collace that were covered under our family health insurance (designed to pay for things like dental care, eye glasses and prescription medications). She didn't even have to pay for her wig or hats, even had a free workshop on how to do her wig and some makeup to look 'human'. A free service for teen girls and women called "Look good, feel better" provided to women with cancer. Granted, things like hats and "Look good, feel better" are not necessities...but they were certainly great things.
Everyone deserves healthcare. Period. Every human being is a gift in SOME way, some have already shone for the world to see, others will only shine for a few to see, but everyone is important to someone. Treat people with dignity and respect, because you never know when you may need their help. The world is, after all, a very uncertain place.
If a few of the A-Wipes in our bought and paid for congress and senate had some of their kids infected with this disease, then you would see things really rolling along in this area of health care.
So here is hoping that------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you want to teach abstinence do it at home. The schools should teach biology (Sex ed)
Let the schools give knowledge. Teach your morals at home!
If your complaint is that the schools are not obeying your religious beliefs then you are already wrong.
I wander what percentage of the 75 are still shooting drugs. I dont care to pay for people who dont give a dang about themselves.
HIV and Aids are social diseases. People who don't play around with sex and drugs do not get HIV or Aids. People who don't drink do not contract the "disease" of alcoholism.
A disproportionately high share of government funding has been allocated to Aids, both domestically and abroad. It's time that we end all of that. If people want to play around with sex and drugs, that's their business. But the rest of us should not have to finance the sad result of it.
Diseases that strike people through no fault of their own should be the focus of government funding.
Wow, this is shocking. I thought everyone with AIDS in America was recieving treatment & we were also sending meds to Africa. Just hope they find the cure soon!