Many People with HIV/AIDS Not Getting Proper Treatment.A report from the AIDS Research Institute of the University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden found that in the four large states which were studied (Texas, Florida, California, and New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of ), many patients are unable to obtain proper HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. medications through both Medicaid and ADAP ADAP AIDS Drug Assistance Program ADAP Alcohol and Drug Awareness Program ADAP Agricultural Development in the American Pacific ADAP Autodiscovery/Autopurge ADAP Airport Development Aid Program ADAP Advanced Digital Antenna Production (the AIDS Drug Assistance Program). In Texas, the worst of the four, about half to two thirds of patients who rely on these public programs are not getting proper treatment. The report was scheduled for publication in March 2001, but was leaked to the media in early November. An Associated Press story is available at: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001103/hl/aids_treatment_1.html Comment This report puts numbers on a dirty little secret which has been widely known but not much discussed--that even within the U.S., whether you get lifesaving treatments for AIDS depends greatly on where you live. Private insurance (not studied in the research discussed here) also has great geographic variations. Very few people can pay for antiretrovirals entirely out of pocket, especially when they earn less because of their illness. Living in rural areas, and/or the South, have long appeared to be significant risk factors for inadequate access to expensive AIDS medication. But much of the variation seems random. |
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