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2004 National HIV/AIDS Update Conference, Miami, Florida

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April 1, 2004

Washington Times
April 1, 2004
http://www.washtimes.com/national/inpolitics.htm
Inside Politics

By Greg Pierce

Miami vice

Since President Bush was elected, annual federal spending for AIDS-related programs has increased from $12.2 billion in 2000 to $18.5 billion in 2004.

Included in the federal budget is funding for the National HIV/AIDS Update Conference. The four-day conference met this week at the Hyatt Regency Miami. The National Institutes of Health was a "premier" sponsor of the event.

One topic discussed in Miami (where it was 81 degrees and partly cloudy) was "more funding is needed from the federal government," the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported yesterday.

"Terje Anderson, executive director of the National Association of People with AIDS, said the most pressing issue is the 300,000 to 400,000 people with the virus who are not getting appropriate care. ... There were suggestions about the need to get people in the HIV community registered to vote and provide them transportation to the polls if necessary," the paper reported.

"Funding has stayed flat because black folks, Hispanic folks and gay folks are not voting for George Bush," Mr. Anderson told the Sun-Sentinel.

Dr. Paul Arons, medical director of the Florida Department of Health's Bureau of HIV/AIDS, told the Sun-Sentinel: "Some things are not going to change until the people in power change."

Friday, March 26, 2004 11:28 AM
AIDS Conference Forecast: Partly Cloudy and 77 Degrees

In case you missed the last STD conference a mere two weeks ago, there is still time to make it to sunny-- well partly cloudy-- Miami.  Don't forget to pack your sun tan lotion and be sure to save all your receipts!

Recreation Forecast for Miami, FL

The Miami Herald
March 26, 2004 Friday F2 EDITION
SECTION: A; Pg. 1

AIDS focus is shifting to S. Florida ;
AIDS experts convene in Miami to discuss the changing face of the oft-deadly foe HIV/AIDS, the quest for vaccines and the pandemic's global impact.; HEALTH

BYLINE: BY FRED TASKER; ftasker@herald.com <mailto:ftasker@herald.com>

After 14 years of meeting in San Francisco, the National HIV/AIDS Update Conference comes to Miami for the second consecutive year this weekend, as experts assert that the battle's center has shifted from the West Coast to the East Coast, especially South Florida .

'' San Francisco still has a high rate of AIDS,'' said conference chairman Dr. Mervyn Silverman. ''But New York and Miami have the equally dubious distinction of being right up at the top now.''

New AIDS cases in the have been cut by more than half since 1993, and Florida has followed the national trend. But some of its major cities -- Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach -- have fared less well, now topping San Francisco in new per capita AIDS cases, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A major reason: In San Francisco, well-educated gay males reacted aggressively to prevention and treatment programs. In New York and Florida -- and to a lesser extent across the country -- the human immunodeficiency virus has increasingly spread to the black and immigrant communities, where language, poverty and cultural differences have hindered anti-AIDS efforts.

''For many refugees, getting a green card so they can be legal is a lot more important than getting healthcare,'' said Dr. Georges Metellus, who runs the University of Miami/Green Family Foundation's Center for Haitian Studies in Miami 's Little Haiti. ''When you're not legal, you're afraid to get healthcare.''

Major themes of the conference include:

* The status of AIDS in the United States: Saturday speakers include Dr. Julie Gerberding, director, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Dr. Paolo Teixeria, director, HIV/AIDS World Health Organization; and Kathleen Cravero, deputy executive director, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

* Developing anti-AIDS drugs and HIV vaccines, and the disappointment that AIDSVAX, the vaccine that raised hope at the 2002 International AIDS Conference in Barcelona , has disappointed in human trials.

* The assertion that AIDS -- acquired immunodeficiency syndrome -- must be fought globally. Harvard medical anthropologist Dr. Paul Farmer and others will describe how political chaos in has disrupted their AIDS-fighting clinics there. accounts for 90 percent of the Caribbean 's AIDS cases.

''We can't deliver services. We can't get supplies,'' said Marie Chery, who runs a clinic sponsored by the University of Miami Pediatric AIDS unit and the Green Family Foundation in the Haitian village of Thomonde. ''Even the Red Cross couldn't deliver food and medicine there. Whatever happens in impacts the Haitian community in Miami, and Miami itself.''

''If we don't do more, by 2010 there will be 50 to 75 million people in the world with AIDS,'' said Michael D. Knox, director of the Florida/Caribbean Educational and Training Center , which is co-hosting the conference.

Conference leaders also believe the can learn from other countries.

In , the mortality rate has been cut in half by a controversial law that lets the government produce generic versions of imported drugs in an emergency.

Still, the main thrust of the conference will be the U.S. AIDS crisis. AIDS has changed dramatically across the since 1993, when antiretroviral drugs arrived -- with the rate of new cases declining by more than half.

But the improvement hasn't helped South Florida nearly as much as San Francisco . In 1993, San Francisco was No. 1 in the country with 287.5 new cases of AIDS per 100,000 population. Miami was a distant second, Fort Lauderdale seventh and West Palm Beach eighth.

By 2002 San Francisco had worked a miracle, dropping from first to 10th, its rate down more than 80 percent. Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm cut their rates as well, but still ranked second, fifth and sixth.

Part of the reason AIDS affects Florida so strongly is the kinds of people it hits. In the , new AIDS patients are relatively more likely than in Florida to be men who have sex with men; in Florida, they are relatively more likely to be female, heterosexual and black -- particularly among immigrants from and the rest of the Caribbean . For example:

* New AIDS cases in 2002 stemming from men having sex with men were 46 percent in the nation, only 40 percent in Florida .

* New cases stemming from heterosexual sex were 11 percent in the , but 20 percent in Florida .

* Blacks in Florida went from 42 percent of new cases in 1993 to 55 percent in 2002.

In South Florida , it translates to a relative shift from gay white males to heterosexual black females, CDC reports show.

In many cases, local AIDS fighters say it involves immigrants who face language, cultural and other challenges.

''A lot of the problems here are related to poverty and limited access to healthcare. More than half of our clients don't have insurance,'' Metellus said.

''It's not that care isn't available; it isavailable,'' said Ann Carter, director of University of Miami 's Comprehensive AIDS Program. ''But too many women feel they're not at risk because they have only one man. So they come in later for testing when they're pregnant, and they're HIV-infected.

''I think outreach and education have to be the main things we do over the next few years,'' she said.