$1.7 MILLION MORE SOUGHT TO PREVENT HIV IN CHICAGO

Dismayed that the 2007 city budget proposed by Mayor Richard Daley
has no increase in HIV-prevention funding , Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) is
seeking an amendment to mandate a $1.7 million boost to fight the disease.

The number of reported HIV/AIDS cases in Chicago has increased 20
percent since 2003--particularly among African-Americans and Latinos,
according to the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. But there has not been a
city budget increase in HIV-prevention funding since then.

"Early prevention could have saved so many lives in my community: the
white gay male, North Side community," said Tunney. "We need these
dollars for the ravaging effects of what's happening in the Latino
and African-American communities."

Tunney, the council's only openly gay alderman, introduced the
ordinance at last week's council meeting, shortly before a public
budget hearing where AIDS advocates testified in support of the increase.

AIDS advocates say that the $1.7 million could reverse recent
funding-related service cuts for proven interventions, including
projects serving women and girls, needle-exchange programs for
injection drug users and school-based HIV prevention education for
at-risk youth.

The last budget increase for HIV prevention occurred in 2003 when
city leaders approved $600,000, primarily from the Community
Development Block Grant. The 2007 budget calls for spending $4.2
million in city funds for AIDS prevention, a dollar amount that has
remained unchanged since 2004.

The City Council is expected to vote Nov. 15 on next year's $5.7
billion budget.

Tunney and AIDS advocates are concerned about increasing infections
among gay and bisexual men and in minority communities. Blacks
represent 36 percent of Chicago's population, yet they account for 55
percent of people living with HIV/AIDS in Chicago, according to city
health data. Similarly, Puerto Ricans account for 15 percent of the
Hispanic population in Chicago, but account for 29 percent of HIV and
AIDS diagnoses in Hispanics between 2003 and 2004.

Tunney's ordinance mandates that the increase not be drawn from
existing Health Department funds but from other available funds as
determined by the city's budget director. Tunney has not proposed a
source for the additional monies but said he is working with the
mayor's office on the matter.

Health Commissioner Terry Mason commended AIDS advocates for raising
awareness of the issue but said that greater advocacy must occur on
the federal and state levels where the city receives the bulk of its
HIV-prevention funds.

This year HIV-prevention services in the Chicago area have suffered a
cut of nearly $500,000 in state and federal funding, the AIDS
Foundation of Chicago reported.

Meanwhile, new federal mandates to expand voluntary HIV counseling
and testing services and onerous record-keeping mean less funding for
prevention education, condom distribution, school- and faith-based
education, and other interventions, foundation officials said.

Operators of the city's two needle-exchange programs said they are
particularly concerned about the funding shortfall as it coincides
with the implementation of the city's HIV Prevention Plan for
2007-2009. The plan was developed by the city's HIV Prevention
Planning Group, a 41-member advisory panel, and recommends less
funding for injection drug users given that HIV transmission for that
population has been on the decline.