Last night (July 26), some 100 AIDS healthcare providers and community members in San Francisco met to discuss recent budget cuts to the city’s HIV/AIDS funding—and to bat around plans for a new prevention model for a city where about 20,000 people are living with HIV.
“We’ve received a significant cut in CARE funds in this last round, and we expect more with the formula changing,” says Tracey Packer, interim director of HIV Prevention at the San Francisco Department of Public Health. “We think it’s important to rethink and improve what we’re doing …in terms of prevention, as well as taking care of people with HIV.”
The two-hour meeting, organized by the San Francisco HIV Health Planning Work Group, was the first in a series of meetings, focus groups and surveys planned over the next few months. Attendees discussed topics such as HIV in older adults and the myriad non-HIV-related health issues that positive people in urban areas must face.
The group hopes to finalize recommendations to present to policy makers by the end of the year.
"I'm HIV positive and diabetic (as well as have high cholesterol) and some of my meds specify taking them with 'high fat foods' which I have to do twice a day. I've eaten as healthy as possible, but when it comes to high fat foods, I am in a quandary...about what to eat sometimes..."
