The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) today announced a $600,000 Caribbean “Twinning” Program grant to Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., to improve the delivery and quality of community-based HIV/AIDS care in the Caribbean.
 
“This grant will support and foster the transfer and sharing of technology, skills and information on HIV/AIDS between the United States and the Caribbean,” Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. “With HIV infection rates in the Caribbean among the highest in the world and with migration between there and the U.S. continuing at a steady pace, efforts like this one are important to people in both areas.”
 
The grant will be administered by Sunset Park Family Health Center Network, a community health center located in Brooklyn, N.Y., that is affiliated with the Lutheran Medical Center.  Initially, Sunset Park plans to develop a single partnership with an HIV clinic in Trinidad; other partnerships between U.S.-based clinics and clinics in Caribbean countries may arise in the future.  Partnerships will be designed to improve access to community-based HIV/AIDS care and support services, including prevention of maternal-to-child transmission.
 
The twinning program is expected to last four years, at a rate of $600,000 per year for the first three years, and $200,000 for the fourth year.  The grant will utilize state-of-the-art technology to exchange information and skills, reducing the need of staff and experts to travel back and forth to sites.
 
The twinning initiative is funded by the HRSA HIV/AIDS Bureau's Global Program, in collaboration with the bureau's Special Projects of National Significance program.
 
Since fiscal year 1991, Congress has appropriated $13.6 billion in Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act funding.  Last year, CARE Act programs helped about 530,000 individuals access life-sustaining care and services.