The Louisville, Kentucky, AIDS Walk drew $16,000 less than last year, which will likely result in funding cuts for local HIV/AIDS services in Jefferson County, WHAS 11 reports. Now in its 17th year, the annual event usually rakes in hundreds of thousands of dollars. Exact tallies for the September 13 event were not yet reported.

“We are struggling to try to serve more people with fewer funds,” said Brad Hampton, director of the Louisville AIDS Walk. “If you compare 2000 to 2009, there’s been a 42 percent decrease in the amount of funds…and a 71 percent increase in the number of people living with AIDS in Jefferson County.”

Hampton believes that fundraising has been down during the past few years because HIV is no longer viewed as a serious problem. “HIV/AIDS is not in the headlines the way it used to be,” he says. “We’re 26 years into the epidemic, so people are not as concerned about it.”