Jackson Free Press

When Greenwood resident Sandra Stringfellow was diagnosed with HIV 16 years ago, she felt isolated and alone. Her neighbor flagged down Stringfellow's visitors to tell them that Stringfellow was positive and that they shouldn't associate with her.

Stringfelllow said she believes breaking stigmas is just as important as increasing funding for HIV/AIDS treatment and services for survivors. She says her neighbor no longer flags people down, but she still feels isolated because of the disease.

"All I am trying to do is encourage and motivate people," Stringfellow said. "There still is life with HIV or AIDS, and there are more people out here than you think that are positive. We need to stop being scared and start educating people. As of right now, we are still in the dark ages."

To raise awareness on the struggles of the HIV/AIDS survivors, two reports and a three-day conference brought Stringfellow and approximately 200 advocates to the Capitol last week, where they called for support of sex education, and funding for prevention and services for those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

The inaugural Mississippi HIV/AIDS awareness day, Wednesday, March 9, was one of the highlights of the week. Brave New Day, an HIV/AIDS support organization located in Jackson, received a grant through AIDS United and the Ford Foundation to host The Mississippi HIVil Rights Project, a three-day conference that tied lessons from the Civil Rights Movement to its advocacy training.

"It's historic for us because we haven't seen that kind of gathering in the history of the epidemic in Mississippi among survivors of HIV," said HIV survivor and Brave New Day Executive Director Robin Webb.

During a press conference at the Capitol Human Rights Watch, an international human-rights organization, released the report "Rights at Risk: State Response to HIV in Mississippi," along with Harvard Law School's "State Healthcare Access Research Project: Mississippi State Report."

"We issued this report because Mississippi has serious problems with HIV," Megan McLemore, Human Rights Watch senior researcher, said. "... Fifty percent of people in Mississippi with HIV are not receiving care. A second concern is that the death rate (for those with AIDS) in Mississippi is 60 percent higher than in the rest of the country."

Mississippi has the 10th highest rate of AIDS diagnosis in the country and the 16th highest rate of HIV infections. In 2009, 9,212 people in Mississippi were living with HIV/AIDS; however, the Human Rights Watch report states that the number underestimates residents with HIV/AIDS because 10 to 25 percent of people with the disease do not know they have it.

The state's first HIV/AIDS Awareness Day met with some static, however, when the state Capitol's security guards asked advocates to remove a box of free condoms from an information table. Webb said the incident exemplified the approach to sex and STD education that the state has embraced.

"The point is, this is the very thing that buries burning issues like comprehensive sex education," he said "...There couldn't be anything worse than to remove those condoms from the rotunda."

Mississippi allocates $750,000 for HIV/AIDS treatment and services each year, but McLemore said those funds are inadequate, compared to other states. The state's funding, she said, has remained the same for 10 years, despite the rising costs of medical care and housing.

The Human Rights report calls for state agencies, such as the Department of Health, to apply for more federal funds to provide health care, housing and transportation services for those living with HIV/ AIDS.

"Mississippi leaves millions, and perhaps billions, on the table every year by not taking advantage of federal dollars that they need to get," McLemore said.

For this current fiscal year, the Department of Health was awarded a total of $21,889,144 from the state and federal government for HIV/AIDS prevention and support services. The majority of non-state-allocated funds are from the federal Ryan White Care Act, which provides drugs and health care for low-income and uninsured AIDS patients. The Centers for Disease Control provides for HIV-prevention education and testing, and the Health Department receives $948,759 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and $941,126 from the City of Jackson for housing assistance.

Dr. Nick Mosca, who began serving as the director of the Mississippi Department of Health sexually transmitted diseases/HIV program in November 2010, said educating policy-makers is the first step to improving conditions for patients.

"My vision for the HIV program in the Mississippi State Department of Health is to have an efficient public-health infrastructure that promotes effective evidence-based prevention strategies through community alliances," Mosca said.

Mosca said applying for more federal funds would not necessarily help.

"One of the things we are struggling with is how to we apply for funds and (then) be able to manage them effectively," Mosca said. "If we are not able to apply for the funds, ... the funds could be applied for by community-based organizations."