States Spar Over Federal HIV/AIDS Funds

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON - AIDS started as a big-city epidemic infecting mostly gay white men, and now it's prevalent in the South and among minorities. Yet the federal law that helps the neediest patients has not kept up with that evolution.

By some measures, AIDS patients in California and the Northeast get more money per capita than those in the South, where activists are lobbying for a bigger share.

With hundreds of millions of dollars at stake, Congress is attempting for the first time since 2000 to amend the Ryan White CARE Act of 1990. It is named for the Indiana teenager who died that year after contracting AIDS from treatments for hemophilia.

"We haven't seen the money shifting with the epidemic. I don't believe a person should be punished because of where they live geographically, and that's what's happening," said Kathie Hiers, head of AIDS Alabama, a nonprofit group that provides housing and other services to HIV/AIDS patients.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060423/ap_on_go_co/congress_aids