NCJ Number
107847
Journal
Governing Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Dated: (November 1987) Pages: 34-40
Date Published
1987
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article contends that Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is being handled at the local level because the Federal Government has provided little help in dealing with the pandemic, cites problems the localities are having coping with AIDS, and makes recommendations for handling it more effectively.
Abstract
The AIDS crisis is concentrated in urban areas with five-eighths of the national caseload occurring in 10 metropolitan areas. The incidence of AIDS at the State level is even more concentrated, with 70 percent of all diagnoses from New York, California, Florida, Texas, and New Jersey. Growing concern over the spread of AIDS through prostitutes who are intravenous (IV) drug users, providing humane but cost-effective care, and the fact that AIDS is not the only health problem facing localities are cited as problems. Seventeen percent of New York City prostitutes were seropositive for AIDS and 30 percent were IV drug users. A Dallas official noted that IV drug users are frequent underreporters of their illness because they are out of the mainstream of society to a larger extent than homosexuals, and publicly funded drug treatment programs are already overloaded because of Reagan administration funding cuts. Medicaid and Medicare often do not cover AIDS patients because of 2-year disability and institutional care requirements. Because there is no vaccine for AIDS and no effective treatment, education is the focus of most long-range AIDS programs. Media programs in Houston and Florida and a drug education program in New Jersey are cited. Applying for Medicaid waivers to use home and housekeeping care instead of hospitals and nursing homes is recommended as a more cost-effective measure for the States.