Federal money boosts state AIDS program

A long-awaited infusion of federal money is making it possible for North Carolina to expand a program that provides free HIV/AIDS medicine for the second time in as many years.

The drug program expansion means an additional 200 to 300 North Carolinians with HIV/AIDS qualify for free medicines. As of last month, the state program was providing free medication to 2,875 people.

The new money comes after years of often contentious debate among states about how federal money should be allocated. Under renewed authorization of the Ryan White CARE Act that supports HIV/AIDS services, the U.S. Congress allocated North Carolina an additional $6.7 million in annual federal dollars, said Evelyn Foust, head of the state's HIV prevention branch.

Foust said about half of the new money will help to expand the N.C. AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which now can help individuals with an annual income of up to $25,525. That is an increase from the previous cutoff of twice the federal poverty limit, or $20,420, that the state approved last year.

Before 2006, the state's limited budget for AIDS medicines forced it to restrict help to people with incomes just over $12,000. That made the program the least generous in the country. Even now, the state has one of the most limited programs in the nation.

Remaining on drug therapy keeps patients with HIV/AIDS feeling well and makes them less likely to pick up other illnesses because of their compromised immune system. Even more important, it reduces the level of human immunodeficiency virus in patients' bloodstreams, which makes them less infectious.

"People will get healthy and be much less likely to transmit the virus to others," Foust said.