Sorry, No More AntiRetroviral Drugs For You-

Just a few days ago, it came to my attention that South Carolina’s House Ways and Means Committee approved a measure that would make cuts to HIV/AIDS funding for South Carolina. Explicitly, the measure would completely remove funds for South Carolina’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), which is a program that provides  low-income, uninsured, or underinsured people living with HIV/AIDS access to antiretroviral drugs.

To cut ADAP is problematic on so many levels, but i’ll just cover a few from my perspective.

1. The removal of funds for ADAP is very clearly saying to me LET THE POOR PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS DIE! I wish I was being melodramatic, but i’m really not. We know that the immune system of a person living with HIV/AIDS not being treated with antiretroviral therapy decreases more rapidly than an a person living with HIV/AIDS who is receiving antiretroviral therapy . The reality is that the HIV virus will overwhelm the immune system, lower the Tcell count, and will increases a persons susceptibility to opportunistic infections– which will ultimately lead to death.

2. With South Carolina ranking 8th in the nation for AIDS rates, you would think that saving people’s lives would be the primary mission of the House Ways and Means committee in SC and not saving a few dollars. What this cut says to me is that there are people in powerful positions, who set policy that affect millions, saying that certain populations of people are expendable. Based on the numbers, let’s see who are expendable. According to the South Carolina Health Department:

• More than eight out of 10 S.C. women with HIV are African-American
• African-American women have a HIV/AIDS case rate 12 times greater than that of white women in South Carolina.
• In 2007, African-American women comprised 30 percent of persons who died from AIDS in S.C.
• Men who have sex with men (53 percent) represent the largest
  proportion of recent infections, followed by men who have sex with women (MSW) and
  women who have sex with men (WSM) (39 percent). Seventy-eight people (eight
  percent of total) were infected through injecting drug use (IDU).

So, let me get this right. Black/African-Americans, gay and lesbians, and injection drug users. Got it. No surprise there. This country has a history of strategically propagating attitudes and polices that target and attempt to cripple those deemed socially undesirable or those who are unwilling to continue to pick cotton.

All in all, to cut ADAP is a crime against humanity. It is gross negligence on the part of those representatives who passed the measure and they should be held accountable for attempting to deprive people of life saving treatments. To even consider this measure is a blatant disregard of this country’s history of exploitation and discrimination of POC, LGBT people, and Women and Children. We can pretend that racism, sexism, and homophobia don’t exist, but let me assure that a bill that would cut ADAP is operating at the intersection of all those issues and more. Structural violence is real! We must not allow this to happen! This tomfoolery needs to end today.

~ by ayotunde4real on March 12, 2010.