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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 18, 2005

AMIDST URGENT HIV CRISIS, SCHUMER BLASTS FEDS FOR SHORTCHANGING HIV FUNDING – NEW FED BUDGET CUTS FOR HIV PREVENTION COULDN’T COME AT A WORSE TIME

Schumer details new 4 point federal plan to help city fight AIDS crisis

Senator says CDC must fund: HIV tracking systems in NYC, public awareness, outreach to doctors

In response to the urgent HIV crisis brewing in New York City, US Senator Charles E. Schumer today outlined a new four point plan to bolster the New York City AIDS program, and called on the federal government to fully fund critical HIV/AIDS initiatives that have been woefully underfunded. Schumer’s call comes on the heels of last week’s report of potentially new and untreatable strain of HIV in New York City.

"The public health of New Yorkers is in imminent danger. A new, untreatable HIV strain must be fought with a public education campaign, prevention, and improved AIDS tracking. Without substantial new funds, the City cannot adequately fight this potential public health disaster,” said Schumer. “If doctors don’t have the tools or ability they need to monitor the disease, and the public doesn’t understand potential implications, we’ll be living in the 80's again.”

Last week a possibly new and untreatable strain of HIV was detected in a New York City man in his mid-40's. The superstrain was dubbed "3-DCR HIV" because it's resistant to three of the four HIV drug classes that are currently in use, and thereby renders 19 of 20 treatment drugs, useless. While most cases of HIV take as long as ten years to progress to AIDS, this man’s case is believed to have taken only two months. After they learned of his condition, the New York Health Department started searching for the man's partners, many of whom are unknown because he reportedly engaged in unprotected sex with possibly hundreds of partners while under the influence of the drug crystal methamphetamine.

New York City is the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS epidemic nationally, with only 3% of the country’s population but almost 16% of the country’s AIDS patients. According to the New York City Department of Health, almost 89,000 New Yorkers diagnosed and known to be living with HIV, including 57,316 diagnosed with AIDS and at least an estimated 25,000 additional people living with HIV but not yet diagnosed. In 2003 alone the number of reported new HIV/AIDS cases was 4,086, which surpasses the total number of people living with AIDS in many U.S. cities. New York had the highest rate of new AIDS cases in both 2001 and 2002, and the number of people living with AIDS has doubled in the last nine years.

To address the dangerous scenario Schumer today called on the CDC to fund a new and multi-year demonstration program in New York City which would:

• Increase Federal Funding 2005 federal funding shortchanged the following 6 crucial domestic HIV/AIDS programs by $2.4 billion (according to the needs of the HIV population as identified by the New York AIDS Coalition):The Minority HIV/AIDS initiative by $211.1 million, CDC HIV prevention by $386.6 million, six of the Ryan White CARE Act programs by $502.2 million, NIH Office of AIDS Research by $200 million, SAMHSA by $982.4M, Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS (HOPWA) by $103.3M.

Of these programs, the three that provide the most significant direct benefit to NYC (CDC HIV prevention, Title I of the Ryan White CARE Act, and HOPWA) are underfunded by $55.8 million for New York City's needs.

Last week President Bush made matters even worse by proposing further cuts for the coming year (FY06). The CDC HIV Prevention program, was cut $4.5 million from $662.5 million to $658M. CDC prevention program has never seen an adequate investment and in the past three years its funding levels have actually decreased.. President Bush has ignored the challenge of preventing HIV by proposing in February of this year a further reduction of $4.6 million in the program's budget, moving in entirely the wrong direction. Additionally, HOPWA was cut 14 million dollars from $282 million to $268 million.

In sharp contrast to the President's cuts to key programs intended to directly educate people about and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, he has increased funding for abstinence-only education by 19%. New York receives a significant proportion of all AIDS funding because of the high percentage of Americans living with HIV/AIDS here, and therefore suffers the greatest from these twisted priorities.

Schumer urged his colleagues in Senate to reverse the poor choices made by President in his budget and increase funding for existing HIV/AIDS programs that, if adequately funded, are designed to combat crises like the one currently brewing in NYC.

• Improve HIV/AIDS Tracking. New York does not have adequate systems in place to fully understand how the HIV/AIDS epidemic is evolving. The city needs federal funding to expand existing tracking systems to identify potential new strains of the virus and to better understand emerging patterns of resistance to existing drug treatments. To do this, Schumer said, the CDC should recommend that doctors do resistance testing for new diagnoses of HIV, a practice that is not universally implemented, and provide funding to New York to develop systems to track and analyze this information.

In addition, Schumer said, New York must develop comprehensive systems for tracking the relative success of different treatments by measuring the amount of the virus present in the bloodstream. Such tracking -- based on viral load testing -- would assist public health officials in identifying whether patients are receiving adequate and effective treatments in different areas of the city and even at the individual physician level. With this information, officials could better direct resources to doctors and patients to ensure that patients are receiving the most effective treatments and better control the spread of the epidemic in the city

• Implement Public Health Detailing. Schumer said that the CDC program should institute a public health detailing program for doctors, comprehensive education and training to ensure doctors have the most up-to-date tools at their disposal for diagnosing, tracking and reporting the disease. Training will also focus on prevention counseling, partner counseling and meth education and treatment options for patients.

• Establish Public Awareness Campaign. Schumer said that in light of the new development in the war on AIDS a new, reinvigorated AIDS education program is necessary and called on the CDC to launch a new comprehensive public awareness campaign. The program would use advertising and media outlets as well as community groups and schools to distribute educational information to New Yorkers on the new and persistent dangers of AIDS and risky behaviors.

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