"HIV Effort Cut in Georgia"

"HIV Effort Cut in Georgia"
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (08.22.08):: Craig Schneider

On Thursday, CDC officials confirmed that Georgia is no longer among the states taking part in its state-of-the-art program to track HIV incidence. Georgia had been participating for the past three years, receiving more than $1 million to conduct the advanced testing, which can distinguish longstanding HIV infections from ones acquired within the previous five months.

The funding cut does not affect any other state HIV/AIDS testing or services. But advocates said that since the state has never been on the cutting edge of HIV surveillance, testing or prevention, the loss is significant. CDC increased the state's funding this year for basic HIV/AIDS reporting by 70 percent, to $726,257.

In 2007, Georgia had 32,740 HIV/AIDS cases, a 27 percent jump over the total in 2004. State officials said the CDC program revealed there were an estimated 2,100 newly acquired HIV infections in 2006. That cannot be put into perspective, however, since the state has no previous incidence data for any comparison, officials noted.

CDC has reduced the number of jurisdictions included in the HIV incidence program from 34 to 25 cities and states, said Irene Hall, CDC's chief of HIV incidence and case surveillance. The process for inclusion was competitive, but CDC officials declined to discuss reasons why Georgia did not make the cut.

"It's a setback," said Dr. Carlos del Rio, co-director for the Emory Center for AIDS Research. "In order to have effective prevention, we need to know who is getting infected today, not 10 years ago."

Jeff Cheek, the local director of federal Ryan White funding in the metro area, said the state needs to intensify testing and prevention efforts.