May 7, 2009
HIV/AIDS ACTIVISTS RALLY FOR FUNDING
By Ken Dixon, Connecticut Post Staff Writer
HARTFORD — About 450 HIV/ AIDS activists from throughout Connecticut rallied outside the Capitol Wednesday, then went in to ask lawmakers for funding commitments at a time when the virus is spreading in the heterosexual community.
It was the eighth annual AIDS Awareness Day and the activists, led by the Connecticut AIDS Resource Coalition, said more people are delaying diagnosis, so when they eventually get tested, they're finding themselves with full-blown AIDS, rather than the lower level, more-treatable HIV-positive status.
In fact, doctors are telling nearly a quarter of those newly diagnosed that they have AIDS.
They said there's a shift away from new infections among the gay and intravenous-drug communities and more toward those engaging in unsafe heterosexual sex. Twenty-three percent of new cases are being diagnosed as full-blown AIDS.
"That means they've been living with the disease for quite some time before they're diagnosed," said Shawn M. Lang, director of public policy for CARC. "They may have been unknowingly infecting other people, but their health has also progressed to the point where it's very difficult to catch up to the disease once it has progressed to the point that you're diagnosed with AIDS."
Statewide, there are about 11,000 people with HIV or AIDS, and the point of the daylong lobbying effort was to underscore the need for a commitment to funding treatment programs.
For Emilio Quilles, 49, of Bridgeport, who has had AIDS for 21 years, the news of the further spread into the heterosexual population is discouraging at a time when activities are attempting to save $2.5 million in state funding for housing and intravenous-needle exchange programs.
"I want to send a message to the governor that we need this help," said Quilles, a disabled former security guard. "If they do cut this funding, it will be devastating to us, not just New Haven, Bridgeport, Waterbury, Stamford, everywhere."
Quilles said he was infected while sharing dirty needles with intravenous drug users in the late 1970s or early 1980s. He remembered when AIDS patients were dying by the hundreds in Connecticut.
"As time went on, new medications have been introduced to us, and people were learning how to better cope and live with this deadly virus," he told the crowd on the Capitol's steps, recalling the origin of housing, food and utility-assistance programs.
Now, he is worried about social-service programs getting overwhelmed at a time when the state is trying to save money to cope with its multibillion-dollar budget deficit. He knows case managers who are counseling 60 to 70 patients.
"This leaves a very uncertain future for those who rely on the trust of our government to help them be able to help themselves," Quilles said.
Rep. Patricia Dillon, DNew Haven, said while the worst of the AIDS epidemic of nearly 20 years ago may be over, the virus remains active.
"This disease is not over," she said. "We have been through worse times than this, and we will get through this together."
Kevin Lembo, director of the state Office of Health Care Advocate, said the HIV/AIDS community has a lot of friends in the Capitol. "It's AIDS Awareness Day, it's housing awareness day, it's Medicaid awareness day, it's health care awareness day," Lembo said. "Mostly because we've all come together and worked on it together and put our interests together and not one in front of another."
The 450 HIV/AIDS supporters put on red T-shirts that read "HIV+? Get tested!" for a morning rally that continued in the halls outside the House and Senate, where activists met with their local lawmakers. The Hartford Health Department was on the scene outside the Capitol offering free HIV tests.