Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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San Francisco Examiner - April 21, 2007
Bonnie Eslinger, beslinger@examiner.com
Dr. Mitch Katz, San Francisco's director of public health, sat alongside Mayor Gavin Newsom on Friday and told reporters that, while it was important to have a separate office when AIDS was a new disease that carried a stigma preventing people from getting the health support they needed, circumstances have changed.
"Now it's a disease where most people who have it are going to live out their normal life span," Katz said, referring to medications that have been effective treating though not curing AIDS.
Limited evidence suggests that HIV infection rates have decreased only modestly, according to The City's 2005 HIV/AIDS reports. Five years ago, 1,084 new people were found to be infected with HIV in San Francisco; in 2006, 975 new people were found to be infected.
Although the position of Jimmy Loyce, who has headed the AIDS office since 2000, will not be filled, the health department is currently looking to hire a new AIDS prevention director, Katz said.
Support previously coordinated through the AIDS office will now be largely overseen by the community health section, Katz said, since many of the services -- including housing and mental health support provided to AIDS patients -- are also provided to other patients.
With federal funding dwindling for AIDS programs, integrating the office will also help streamline costs by making the delivery of services more efficient, Katz said.
This year, The City is projecting a $5.7 million reduction in federal funding for cities like San Francisco that have been disproportionately hit by AIDS.
City officials are committed to finding ways to fill the hole left by the decrease in federal Ryan White CARE funding, Katz said, from an anticipated $27.9 million to $22.2 million.
Supportive housing for AIDS patients was the target of two-thirds of the funding reduction. Mayor Newsom said other housing funds would be applied to help fill the funding gap.
Since 1981, when the first AIDS case was reported, more than 18,100 San Franciscans have died from the disease. An estimated 18,679 persons in The City are now living with the disease, 12 percent of the state's 151,000 existing HIV/AIDS cases.
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