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South Carolina's Health Department has confirmed that three people with HIV/AIDS died while on a waiting list for the State AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). Currently almost 300 ADAP-qualified patients are on the South Carolina waiting list for HIV therapy.

"It's like standing on a track watching the train coming at you, but you can't move," said Kathie Hiers, chief executive of AIDS Alabama and a member of a group of advocates, legislators, and public health officials who recently met in South Carolina to discuss the problem. "The ADAP waiting list in South Carolina keeps getting longer; they expect it to be about 350 people by the end of the year." The state only provides $500,000 for their ADAP program, and federal funding has been essentially flat for the last four years.

South Carolina's ADAP program currently serves about 1,800 clients, of whom 67 percent are African-American and 85 percent earn less than twice the federal poverty level (approximately $19,000 a year).

from TheBodyPro.com