HILO >> The Big Island AIDS Project recently received a $50,000 federal grant to improve AIDS care and services in East Hawaii. $50,000 grant helps
Big Isle AIDS careStar-Bulletin staff
The grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will be used to create an interagency plan over a one-year period. That plan could in turn lead to a follow-up grant of $750,000 over a three-year period, said project coordinator Susan Collins.
Estimates of the number of people living with HIV throughout the Big Island range from 299 to 416, Collins said. That is out of statewide estimates of 2,300 to 3,200.
The largest concentration on the Big Island are in the Puna district, Collins said. There, in an area nearly the size of Oahu, the biggest problem is transportation, getting people from their homes to doctors and other services.
The current services for HIV patients have "huge gaps," Collins said.
For example, if an HIV-positive person without insurance shows up at the emergency room of Hilo Hospital seeking health care for the first time, what should health care officials do after providing emergency care? Collins asked.
AIDS is too serious a disease simply to let the person go home, but right now there is no health care system to send the patient to, she said.
Neither HIV-positive people nor health care professionals know who is willing to treat HIV patients, Collins said. In East Hawaii there appear to be three doctors, one dentist and one clinic that will accept HIV patients, but no one knows whether there are more.
The East Hawaii medical community's response to this planning effort has been "incredible," with more people joining all the time, she said.
In some mainland communities, resistance of health professionals has been so strong, due to fears that non-AIDS patients will not want to be treated in the same facility that treats AIDS patients, that AIDS projects had to fly in doctors, Collins said.