Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press (08.28.03) - Friday, August 29, 2003
"People are now starting to die while they're on the waiting list," said Dr. Faisal Khan, director of West Virginia's HIV/AIDS/STD program. "It is a crisis that will continue."
Jay Adams, an HIV care coordinator with the AIDS Task Force of the Upper Ohio Valley in Wheeling, says the list of people in West Virginia needing the drugs is only growing. "There's no end in sight," Adams said. "It's a very serious problem."
For patients who must take a combination of antiretroviral drugs, taking just three of the medications costs about $14,000 a year. Some are prescribed four or five.
West Virginia's drug program has 340 people enrolled, with enrollment increasing over the past two or three years, said Khan. But federal funding for the program is not linked to how many people use it. Federal officials base program funding on how many AIDS cases are diagnosed in that state - a relatively small number in West Virginia. That figure would not include people with HIV or people living in the state who were diagnosed elsewhere.
The federal Health Resources and Services Administration gave the state's ADAP about $1 million to buy HIV/AIDS drugs. The program also gets rebates from drug companies to help with drug costs.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, as of June 2002, 554 people with AIDS were recorded as living in West Virginia.
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