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Issue #234: June 18, 1999
FASTFAX is available by fax in the 215 and 610 area codes at no cost, by mail anywhere for 20.00 per year, by calling 215-545-6868, and on the fastfax index page. Information in fastfax is drawn mostly from secondary sources; people living with HIV/AIDS should share information of interest to them with their primary care provider before making treatment choices. For more information on HIV medications and treatments, contact Kiyoshi Kuromiya of the Critical Path AIDS Project, 215-545-2212 or by email to The presence of the name or image of any individual in fastfax should not be construed as an indication of their HIV status or sexual preference unless specifically stated. Questions or comments should be directed to Editor, fastfax, 425 S. Broad St., Phila., PA 19147-1126 or by email to
In This Issue:
Feds to "advise" Philadelphia on improving minority AIDS efforts
Senate approves health insurance for disabled workers
Black clergy renew effort to fight AIDS
Activists confront Gore on African AIDS policy
AIDS staff convicted of embezzling AIDS funds
WISDOM project seeks organizer
Later this month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will send "crisis-response teams" to Philadelphia, Miami and Detroit to assess current HIV/AIDS efforts and make recommendations, at a later date, "on how to craft prevention and treatment strategies for black and Hispanic communities."
The teams will stay in Philadelphia for eight to 10 weeks and meet with "local officials, public health personnel and community-based organizations" that serve minorities with HIV/AIDS. The team will look at factors that have played a role in the disease's spread in Philadelphia to see what should be changed in the approach taken by local health officials.
The visit to Philadelphia was requested by Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, acting on a City Council resolution proposed by Democratic mayoral candidate John F. Street on his last day as City Council President last December.
The $156 million designated last year by the Clinton administration to combat AIDS among blacks will pay for the teams
HHS Secretary Donna Shalala said that "Our interest is in helping people who are already getting good results in tough situations do even better. Further targeting our interventions could save lives."
To be eligible for this assistance, cities had to have populations of at least 500,000 persons and at least 1,500 African-American or Hispanic persons living with HIV/AIDS. Also, these minority groups had to account for at least 50 percent of the community's HIV/AIDS cases. Once a city qualified under these criteria, the chief elected official in that community had to request that HHS dispatch a Crisis Response Team. Other communities currently scheduled to receive help include Atlanta; Baltimore; Chicago; Los Angeles; New Haven/Bridgeport/Danbury/Waterbury, C.T.; Newark, N.J.; Washington, D.C.; and West Palm Beach/Boca Raton, FL
HHS is said to be considering local communities to require that AIDS prevention programs be administered by minority staff, an issue of great contention in Philadelphia since the epidemic began. Megan Foley, an AIDS program analyst with the CDC, said, "We're definitely looking for organizations to design their programs with that cultural competence in mind."
HHS is also granting $9 million this year to church-based groups and others that serve areas with high numbers of blacks with AIDS and syphilis. In a letter to the editor of Ebony this month, Dr. Eric Goosby, director of HHS' office of HIV/AIDS Policy, wrote that the HHS-co-sponsored National Conference on African-Americans and AIDS that he recently attended with 600 others in D.C. "was so successful and so hopeful that we are looking to make it an annual meeting."
Noting the $156 million appropriation to fight HIV/AIDS in racial and ethnic minority communities, he also said, "I am optimistic about this new federal commitment. But money alone --no matter how much -- will never defeat AIDS. Every part of the community has to play a role in prevention efforts and in making sure that treatment is confidential and available."
Last year, blacks accounted for over two-thirds of all the AIDS cases in Philadelphia and almost 90% of the women. Latinos comprised another 10% of AIDS cases locally.
Team members will come from agencies that include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. (Associated Press, Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, Miami Herald, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Ebony)
By a vote of 99 to 0, the Senate has passed a bill that would expand Medicaid and Medicare so hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities could retain their health benefits when they return to work.
The House is well on its way to passing similar legislation. President Clinton hailed the vote and prodded Congress to finish work on the bill as quickly as possible.
The bill would be the most significant health care legislation approved by Congress this year, and the most important measure for disabled people in nearly a decade.
Seventy-nine senators and 179 representatives have signed up as co-sponsors of the legislation, which has support from liberals and conservatives alike, who see it as a way to increase work opportunities for disabled people who would otherwise subsist on welfare.
About eight million disabled people of working age receive more than $70 billion a year in Federal cash benefits. Fewer than one-half of 1 percent of them return to work, despite a 1990 law that prohibits job discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities.
Under current law, many people with disabilities must choose between working and keeping their health insurance. If they take jobs and earn any significant amounts of money, they lose disability benefits and the insurance they receive through Medicaid and Medicare.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, a co-author of the bill who induced many Republicans to support the measure, said: "It offers a new and better life to large numbers of our fellow citizens. We must banish the patronizing mind-set that disabled people are unable. In fact, they have enormous talent, and America cannot afford to waste an ounce of it."
Thomas E. Lowery, an employment specialist in the Illinois Department of Human Services, said, "For millions of people with disabilities, the biggest obstacle to re-entering the job market is the risk of losing health insurance."
The House Commerce Committee approved a nearly identical version of the bill on May 19.
The Senate Finance Committee approved the bill in March, but Republican leaders delayed floor action. They wanted to know how the cost, $800 million over five years, would be met, and they still do not have a clear answer. Some conservatives were concerned that the bill would cover people with HIV. And Republican leaders said they did not want to let Kennedy dictate their agenda.
The bill, the Work Incentives Improvement Act, would create several new options, including these:
- People who lose eligibility for Social Security disability benefits because they return to work would be allowed to continue their Medicare coverage.
- People with disabilities could buy Medicaid coverage even if they took jobs and earned income that would otherwise disqualify them. States could charge premiums for such coverage, rising with a person's income.
- States could allow disabled workers to buy Medicaid coverage, even if the workers lost eligibility for cash benefits because of improvements in their medical conditions.
- States could provide Medicaid to workers who are not actually disabled, but have physical or mental impairments that are "reasonably expected" to become severe disabilities in the absence of health care. This provision could help people who have been infected with HIV but have not developed symptoms of the disease.
"This is a huge victory for people with HIV," said Daniel Zingale, executive director of AIDS Action, an advocacy group.
The same section of the bill could also help people with Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and other chronic or degenerative conditions.
Senator Phil Gramm, Republican of Texas, blocked consideration of the bill last month because, he said, it would have been financed by tax increases, including a change in the foreign tax credit for some multinational corporations. Today Gramm said he had "always supported the policy change that will allow disabled people to continue drawing benefits when they find jobs."
At his insistence, Democrats agreed that the cost of the bill would be offset by cuts in spending elsewhere in the Federal budget, not by any tax increase. The spending cuts will be identified later.
Black clergy renew effort to fight AIDS
The Black Clergy of Philadelphia announced this week that it is stepping up its AIDS prevention efforts in the city's African American community.
At a news conference in City Hall, preachers unveiled Project New Covenant, a program that will promote HIV prevention, education, testing and treatment in the African-American community.
"AIDS has reached deep into our local communities, deep into our families, and deep into our churches," said the Rev. Robert P. Shine Sr., vice president of the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity. "You can choose to ignore this epidemic, or you can take control and address it. We have decided to take control." Shine said it will take an educational effort among the clergy and their flock to strengthen their battle against HIV and AIDS.
"A major part of what we are trying to do is to destigmatize HIV," he said. "We must emphasize it is a medical condition like diabetes, hypertension or cancer. There are many ways to get it, but no matter how you contract this disease, the church announces today. . .that we embrace those who have been stricken with this disease."
Mr. Shine, joined by other black clergy leaders at the news conference, said ministers would preach about AIDS during their Sunday sermons on June 27 and encourage churchgoers and others to get tested for HIV. The sermons will launch a week of stepped-up HIV testing and outreach by city-funded agencies in the black community, Mr. Shine said. The following Sunday, July 4, has also been set aside for sermons about AIDS.
The effort is not the first to mobilize the city's black church network in the fight against AIDS. In 1988, the Clergy AIDS Initiative project, a program of the then-infant AIDS Activities Coordinating Office, organized over 50 major black churches in the region to work with AIDS service organization and prevention efforts. Most of those churches still routinely provide AIDS education programs, and support services such as meals and counseling.
The Ecumenical AIDS Information Resource Center (EIARC), which closed last year, organized a coalition of churches, primarily in North Philadelphia, to provide respite services, AIDS education, and other programs in North Philadelphia neighborhoods.
But it's never been enough, according to many African American PWAs.
"Individual churches have made efforts, but, as a whole, we feel we are not welcome," said Rita Betterson, an ordained minister and a counselor at We the People.
Betterson, who is HIV+, still questioned how people with AIDS would be perceived at black churches.
"If somebody walked in there sick, losing weight, their face sunken, will they still be saying 'Come on, my brother, come on my sister?' " Betterson said.
Also involved in Project New Covenant are Blacks Educating Blacks on Sexual Health Issues, the city's AIDS Activities Coordinating Office, Philadelphia Community Health Alternatives, the Youth Outreach-Adolescent Community AIDS Program and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
A new church-related AIDS project, which received the funding formerly utilized by EIARC, was not invited to participate in the effort, according to informed sources. No reason for their exclusion could be identified as fastfax press time. The project is run by Elizabeth Minor, EIARC's former executive director, and received its funding through a "sole-source" arrangement with AACO last year.
Squibb, the pharmaceutical giant based in Princeton, N.J.,, has donated $25,000 of start-up money for the effort in hopes that other companies will follow. Philadelphia is only one of several large, urban cities in which Bristol-Myers has supported similar programs focused on African-Americans.
Black churches in Philadelphia have a total membership of about 300,000, according to the clergy group. Because of their enormous power and moral suasion in the black community, the churches here and elsewhere in the country have been under pressure from AIDS activists to take a stronger stand on an epidemic that has disproportionately affected blacks.
Pat Bass, codirector of the city's AIDS Activities Coordinating Office, said the New Covenant program would promote not only HIV testing in the black community but also counseling and education. "We don't want folks to just go and be tested," she said. Information on where to get tested for HIV in the Philadelphia area is available by calling 1-800-985-AIDS. (Inquirer, Daily News, other sources)
AIDS activists took over Vice President Al Gore's second campaign stop this week in Manchester, New Hampshire. The activists were protesting what they called Gore's "instrumental" role in preventing AIDS medications from reaching people in developing countries, including South Africa and Thailand.
Five protesters, organized by the local chapter of AIDS Drugs for Africa, disrupted Gore's campaign speech with noisemakers, chants and banners reading "Gore's greed kills: Africa needs AIDS drugs."
They were seated directly behind Gore in the audience of 300 in the Hesser College Gym. "After our protest, Gore said AIDS drugs for Africa are very important. Yet, he is personally standing in the way of cheap, life-saving treatment for Africans with HIV", said Moshe Mizrahi, a protester. "I guess Gore does have strong family values after all; he has family ties to the pharmaceutical lobby and he's killing people on their behalf."
Gore's domestic policy advisor, David Beier, is the former head lobbyist for Genentech, a major U.S. pharmaceutical company. Tony Podesta, top Gore advisor and brother of Clinton's chief of staff, is currently the contracted lobbyist for PhARMA (Pharmaceutical Manufacturer's Association) and most other U.S. drug interests. Tom Downey, close Gore associate and former congressman, lobbies for Merck pharmaceuticals. Gore fundraiser Peter Knight is a former Schering-Plough lobbyist.
Gore has vehemently opposed the practice of "compulsory licensing", which allows local companies to produce cheap, generic AIDS drugs. He has threatened sanctions against the South African government unless President Thabo Mbeki calls a halt to generic drug production. Compulsory licensing is legal under current international trade agreements, and provides royalties to patent owners.
AIDS medications would be available at 10% of their American price.
Currently, 22.5 million Africans are HIV-positive, including up to 26% of young adults, and totaling 67% of the world's HIV+ population. Virtually all are poor and unable to afford treatment at American prices. Most AIDS deaths in developing countries result from lack of access to drugs for treatable infections. Average income in South Africa is $2,600/year, and name-brand AIDS drugs cost around $12,000/year.
Pharmaceutical companies based in the U.S., long under attack for price-gouging at the expense of human lives, have claimed that the high cost of treatment reflects their production expenses. These companies stand to lose credibility as generic drug licensing exposes the true low cost of AIDS drug production; which may prevent them from continuing to drastically overcharge in first-world markets.
"Gore's abuse of power is a campaign issue," said Anna Janssen, a local AIDS activist. "He's taken a position, for the sake of earning points with lobbyists, that absolutely guarantees millions of deaths. Now he wants us to place our fate in his hands as President. Personally, I don't dare."
Local chapters of AIDS Drugs For Africa have vowed to confront Gore at every campaign stop. (ACT UP)
A federal jury in San Juan, Puerto Rico, has convicted three people of stealing $2.2 million of federal funds meant for AIDS services, capping the latest in a series of sensational trials that have embarrassed Puerto Rican politicians.
Yamil Kouri, 63, Jeannette Sotomayor, 58, and Armando Borel, 53, all former administrators of the now-defunct San Juan AIDS Institute, were convicted of funneling funds into fake companies between 1989 and 1994.
The case was cited by U.S. Rep. Tom Coburn last month when he called for a major federal investigation of how Ryan White CARE Act funds are being spent.
Testimony and tape recordings played during the trial have raised allegations that much of the money was funneled into political campaigns, including the 1992 campaign of Gov. Pedro Rossello, who took the witness stand to deny the charges.
The misuse of federal funds is an especially charged issue because residents of this U.S. territory pay no federal taxes - while receiving $11 billion in federal aid a year.
The case also sparked widespread outrage on an island where the HIV rate is relatively high. People with AIDS and their families who had sought treatment in vain demonstrated in front of the federal courthouse throughout the 58-day trial, demanding convictions.
"I've come here to thank God that justice was done," said Maria Correa, 47.
Those convicted each could face up to 25 years in prison. They will be sentenced Sept. 30.
Nine others - including prominent doctors, lawyers, accountants and community leaders - have been indicted in the fraud scheme. U.S. prosecutors say they are planning at least two more trials.
In one of many bombshells during the two-month trial, the Majority Whip in Puerto Rico's House of Representatives, Jose Granados Navedo, testified that he took a cardboard box stuffed with $100,000 for his 1988 mayoral campaign from an AIDS Institute doctor who is to be tried in a later trial.
Last week, Judge Jose Fuste revoked Kouri's bail and ordered him imprisoned after he allegedly tampered with a witness. One of the defense's star witnesses testified that Kouri told her to lie in court and say she had received money that was actually funneled into a dummy corporation.
Prosecution witness Angel Corcino, the institute's former comptroller, testified earlier that Rossello demanded and accepted $250,000 of the money for his 1992 gubernatorial campaign. He also said other politicians took Institute money.
Sotomayor was secretly recorded by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents bragging to her maid about making cash donations to Rossello's campaign in return for political influence.
The governor denied the allegations and has not been charged.
The trial is the latest in a flurry of corruption cases.
Gil said prosecutors were aware the AIDS case targeted some of Puerto Rico's most powerful and privileged. "Getting to this type of person is difficult."
Following the verdict, leaders of AIDS advocacy groups in San Juan and Washington, D.C. are demanding greater accountability among AIDS-related agencies.
With legislators in Puerto Rico "caught in a firestorm of accusations about campaign finance law violations," Jose Colon, president of AIDS Patients for Sane Policies, said he plans to "use the verdicts to push for more investigation of corruption in AIDS-related agencies during his visit to Washington this week."
He said, "This is only the beginning of our work. Now we can really knock on doors and demand answers from those agencies who were supposed to be watching over this money. It has happened right in front of their noses, and we want to see what they're going to do about it." Wayne Turner, coordinator for Washington, D.C.-based ACT UP, said he and Colon are planning talks with directors of the Office of National AIDS Policy in the White House and the Health Resources Services Administration, which administers federal Ryan White AIDS funds. Turner said he will also provide updates to Rep. Coburn, who requested audits of all groups receiving Ryan White funds.
"Tragically, what's happened in Puerto Rico is only the tip of the iceberg," he said, adding, "The bottom line is when AIDS funds are diverted, misused and stolen, people die."
Philadelphia has seen its shared of AIDS scandals as well. In 1995, Fran Stoffa, then-executive director of Philadelphia Community Health Alternatives, pled guilty in a plea bargain to embezzling funds from the organization; shortly before that, Carmen Bolden, former executive director of Congreso de Latinos Unidos, was found guilty of embezzlement involving AIDS and other funds from her agency. An investigation is ongoing on the financial activities of the William J. Craig Memorial Foundation, a now-defunct AIDS case management agency.
At the time of Stoffa's arrest, Mayor Rendell and city health commissioner Estelle B. Richman pledged to appoint a "blue-ribbon" panel to investigate how federal and local AIDS funds were being used by city AIDS service agencies, but that pledge was never fulfilled. (Reuters, Orlando Sentinel, Associated Press)
Women with Immune System Disorders Organizing and Meeting (WISDOM), in collaboration with the Germantown Settlement and Women Against Abuse, is seeking a community organizer in the areas of family violence education and prevention. The individual they are looking for must be experienced, computer literate, and a strong communicator. Survivors encouraged to apply. 30 ours per week. Send resume only to Vice President Planning & Development, Germantown Settlement, 48 E Penn St., Philadelphia, PA 19144.