The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act, or S2311, reauthorizes funding for AIDS and HIV treatment, research and support. It now goes to the Senate for final passage.
"The Central Coast, like other communities across the nation, has been devastated by this frightening epidemic, and we all know someone who has lost a loved one to it," Rep. Farr said. "But since it was passed in 1990, the CARE Act has been a story of success. We are making headway in the battle against AIDS."
Named for a boy who was a hemophiliac and contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion, the Ryan White CARE Act funds a variety of health and support services nationwide for people infected with the HIV disease and their families.
The act targets the uninsured and under-insured, as well as migrant groups and other minorities who have traditionally had limited access to AIDS and HIV counseling and treatment. Beginning in 1997, after powerful new drug treatments were made more available to these groups, their death rate from AIDS fell markedly.
The act provides:
*grants to all states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. territories. It also provides additional grants to metropolitan areas that have been hardest hit by the epidemic.
*direct funding for non-profit groups, to promote early intervention for people with HIV and to provide a variety of social services for victims and their families.
*funds for studies known as Special Projects of National Significance, which are designed to target underserved, hard-to-reach, minority populations. These projects are expected to be replicated in similar communities across the country.
The reauthorization bill makes several amendments to the act, including increased funding for treatment of pregnant women infected with HIV. It also provides new incentives for states to share data about their programs for notifying partners of HIV victims. And it requires the National Institutes of Health to step up development of a rapid HIV test.