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The state’s only AIDS service
organization is suspending its free HIV testing program due to a $60,000 cut in
federal funding.
Wendy LeBlanc, the assistant
director of the Southern New Hampshire HIV/AIDS Task Force, said CDC has
restructured its grants, with funds being targeted to areas heavily affected by
HIV. States like New Hampshire, where case reports are lower, are seeing less
federal money, she said.
“We know that funding is being cut
everywhere,” LeBlanc said. “But we lost a staff person, which is going to be a
big challenge for us.” In addition to conducting HIV tests, that full-time
staffer provided risk-reduction counseling.
The testing costs about $5,000 a
year, said LeBlanc, but an additional $50,000 is needed to provide case
management and other services for existing clients. The task force conducts
about 50 free, confidential HIV tests a year, not a large number, LeBlanc
acknowledged. Yet most screened individuals “have no health insurance and live
at or below the poverty level,” and likely would not be tested if they had to visit
a physician or buy a test kit, she said.
While the task force is intensifying
its fundraising in the hope of resuming free testing, it also will apply for
additional grants and seek individual and corporate support, LeBlanc said. In
September, it will host its annual Thomas O. Cash Walk-a-thon, which raised
about $5,000 in 2011.
Also: Nashua will mark National HIV
Testing Day by offering free testing 3-6 p.m. Wednesday at its Community Health
Clinic, 18 Mulberry St.; telephone 603-589-4500.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit:
http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
