Newspaper Article

AIDS is not just a foreign crisis, Rural parts of U.S. have severe problems with HIV virus that require same response as that given to Africa

PATRICK MOORE. Patrick Moore is the author of "Tweaked: A Crystal Meth Memoir" and a co-founder of the new media company 12th Street Jam. His blog, "The Principles," appears on Yahoo! Health

2006

Overview

Perhaps the largest systemic problem that has led to a crisis in HIV treatment in this country is the failure of the American health care system. In poor, rural areas of the United States, 40 percent of residents live without private health insurance. These areas also lack the AIDS care organizations that provide support to poor people with AIDS in urban settings. When combined with a growing shortage of physicians and hospitals in rural America, people facing a serious disease like AIDS live in dire conditions. Waiting lists for even basic HIV medications, which are provided by the federal AIDS Drug Assistance Program, persist in Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky and West Virginia - even while these medications are beginning to be distributed in Africa. Yet these problems go unaddressed. We Americans have short attention spans, and we've tired of dealing with AIDS domestically. It is far easier to wring our hands about foreign plagues than to face the problems in our own backyard. None of this is to argue that we should decrease funding to AIDS programs in Africa. In fact, we can have greater compassion for Africa if we understand that this disease remains a crisis at home as well. When that awareness is achieved, we can be proud to say America is Africa.

• Publisher: Newsday LLC
• Subject: Bush, George W