NEW STATE LAW HELPS FIGHT HIV/AIDS IN BLACK COMMUNITIES

Rising to the challenge of helping to fight an epidemic in the
African American community, Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed into law
Saturday the Illinois African American HIV/AIDS Response Fund. Under
this fund, $3 million will initially be spearheaded to focus on
prevention and HIV/AIDS awareness in the African American communities
that have for long been neglected by other organizations fighting the
deadly disease.

"HIV/AIDS is a devastating disease, especially within the
African-American community," Blagojevich said in a news statement.
"The Illinois African American HIV/AIDS Response Fund will be used to
take vital steps in preventing the virus' transmission throughout the
African-American community in Illinois. Only by working together can
we stop the spread of this deadly virus."

Under the new law, the Illinois Department of Public Health must
develop a comprehensive, culturally sensitive HIV prevention plan,
targeting high-risk African American communities; establish a stable
HIV/AIDS service delivery infrastructure in Illinois communities that
will meet the needs of African Americans; and establish at least 17
one-stop HIV/AIDS services facilities across the state.

Lloyd Kelly, executive director of Let's Talk, Let's Test Foundation,
told the Defender Sunday that the funding is way overdo for a
community that has been neglected for years by mainstream HIV/AIDS foundations.

"It flips the script on how we deal with the disease in our
community, from treatment and care, to prevention that includes
treatment and care," Kelly said. He said the development of the fund
actually started in 1999 when he and state Rep. Constance Howard
(D-34th) assisted each other in trying to get the word out about a
disease that was quietly ravaging the Black community. "At that time
most people believed that HIV/AIDS was a white and gay thing," Kelly
said. "No one believed it was affecting the African American community.

"There were these huge disparities. How could we be 12 percent of the
population and have these huge numbers of infected people in our
community? About 42 percent of those being infected by HIV were in
African American community in 1999."

Kelly spent four to five months putting together a town hall meeting
in 1999, and got many experts to come out and speak about the
HIV/AIDS epidemic to the Black community. Eventually, Howard and
state Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-4th) put together Senate Bill 1001
that led to the current response fund law.

"Common practice is to fund research to help find a cure for this
awful disease," Howard said in a news statement. "Through the
Illinois African American HIV/AIDS Response Fund, we will be able to
head the virus off at the pass, so to speak, by focusing on prevention first."

The new response fund will allow African Americans to find it easier
to get testing in their communities, and for those who have
contracted HIV, they will be able to get treatment more readily in
their neighborhoods rather than travel long distances for treatment
outside of convenient areas, Kelly said.

"Testing is important so that we can get a handle on how big the
problem really is," Kelly said. "We're estimating that 25 percent of
people with HIV don't really know it.

"We can't dictate how those funds will be administered, because the
law says those funds will go through the Illinois Department of
Public Health. But we got the Illinois General Assembly to recognize
that HIV/AIDS in the African American community is a separate crisis
from any other issue regarding the disease. This changes our thought
process. (The Centers for Disease Control) said there won't be a cure
until 2015, and that's very conservative, so now we must put our
emphasis on prevention.

"Last year we were able to pass legislation to provide free testing
in state offices serving high risk communities," Lightford said in a
news statement. "This year, we were able to obtain more funding for
the HIV/AIDS crisis that is disproportionately affecting our
community. I am pleased to be a part of this measure that is aimed at
keeping high-risk communities safe from the progression of
HIV/AIDS. By targeting these areas with messages of prevention, we
can assist in preventing communities from being ravaged by the virus."