Petrelis Files

BAR: S.F. AIDS Inc Fears Stats Dropping Because of Funding Cuts?

Is the thinking within AIDS Inc so concerned more with executive salaries, jobs and consulting gigs than with drops in AIDS stats that the Bay Area Reporter, in an excellent editorial today, must ask these sort of questions?:

Yet it's been a challenge to get officials from AIDS service organizations and HIV prevention agencies to comment on these latest AIDS statistics. We certainly understand – and reported – that these new numbers DO NOT mean that AIDS is over, or that AIDS cases will dramatically decrease this year. You cannot simply double 205 to predict AIDS cases for the rest of the year, for example. And that is not what we're saying and it's not what the health department report is saying. What these quarterly reports represent, however, is a snapshot of the epidemic at certain periods throughout the year. We know that numbers will continue to come in that will be added to the 2006 figures, and even the 2005 figures because of the reporting delay.

But why the skittishness on the part of AIDS and HIV prevention agencies? Aren't they happy the numbers are down? Don't they want the epidemic to end? [...]

In year 25 of the AIDS epidemic, with both new HIV infections and diagnosed full-blown AIDS cases on the downward slope, such questions must be answered, and the best way to start the dialogue is by insisting that the S.F. health department and AIDS groups convene town hall meetings. But at this moment in time, no public community forums are planned.

The BAR not only published an editorial on this subject, but the paper also ran an extremely informative news story, written by editor Cynthia Laird, on the latest AIDS stats:

The latest numbers for diagnosed AIDS cases in San Francisco show a decline for the first half of 2006, though health department officials emphasized that reporting delays by hospitals, doctors, and clinics likely mean the figures will increase in future reports.

According to the Department of Public Health's Quarterly AIDS Surveillance Report, the number of reported AIDS cases for the first six months of the year stands at 205. Of those, only 43 AIDS cases were actually diagnosed this year, according to the report. There have been 93 deaths reported so far this year [...]

Kudos to Laird and the BAR for bring valuable attention to AIDS epidemiology from the department of health.