US VIRGIN ISLANDS: AIDS Patients' Advocates in US Virgin Islands Cite Drug Shortages

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

US VIRGIN ISLANDS: AIDS Patients' Advocates in US Virgin Islands Cite Drug Shortages

Associated Press (12.22.06) - Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Mat Probasco

More than 60 HIV/AIDS patients in St. Thomas have been without medications for up to two months because the US territory's Health Department failed to pay pharmacists supplying the treatments, said Bruce Small, director of Virgin Islands Community AIDS Resource and Education Inc. The Virgin Islands Health Department said the delays were due to a glitch in the government's new computerized finance system, implemented in October. Health Department spokesperson Eunice Bedminster said pharmacists were paid last week out of the department's petty cash fund, but she was not sure how much was paid out. The money for the drug assistance program comes under the Ryan White CARE Act.
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