Narrator: Twenty-five years ago, the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency
Act - the Ryan White CARE Act - came to life at a time of despair and hope among people
on the frontlines of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program was named for a courageous young man named Ryan White
who was diagnosed at age 13 with AIDS following a blood transfusion in December 1984. An American
teenager living in Indiana, Ryan White was given six months to live. At the time, the
disease was poorly understood. When Ryan White tried to return to school, he fought AIDS-related
discrimination in his community. Along with his mother, he rallied for his right to attend
school - gaining National attention - and became the face of public education about
the disease. Ryan White died in April 1990, only months before Congress passed the legislation
bearing his name.
From early on in the HIV/AIDS crisis, the Health Resources and Services Administration
(HRSA), the agency that administers the Program, has led the public health response in the
care and treatment of people living with HIV. Today HRSA funds hundreds of grantees across
the country to provide services to people living with HIV who do not have sufficient
resources to cope with this disease.
Yvonne Newberry: I think that Ryan White is instrumental in putting HIV Care where we are today. I
don't think HIV care would be anywhere near where it is if it wasn't for the support of
Ryan White. And I know that without question this program here wouldn't even resemble what
we have now.
Greg Townsend: Going back to before we had Ryan White funding, basically it was a couple of doctors, a couple
of nurses, patients. The new drugs came out in the mid 1990's and our ability to effectively
manage HIV changed dramatically. We have medical case managers, which we didn't have before.
We have gynecological services on site, which we didn't have before, mental health services
on site, which we didn't have before.
Yvonne Newberry: Historically, the ability to provide the family care, the one stop shopping
that we're able to provide with having the Ryan White funding. Our continuity is much
better, people show up much better. I think it's definitely made a difference in terms
of transmission during breakouts. I don't think there is a question about that.
Rebecca Dillingham: The UVA program often transforms people's lives, I believe, by letting
them know that somebody, in fact a whole team of people really care.
Gabrielle Marzani, MD: We have people who just feel broken because of the diagnosis and we
are able to give them a sense of confidence that, we say, you don't have to believe it,
we're going to believe it for you until you start to believe it, and then we all move
together.
Patient: Without this clinic, I wouldn't have access to my medication. I wouldn't also have
access to gynecology services, I wouldn't have access to any of that. It has impacted
my life a lot because before this, I was originally diagnosed when I was 14 years old, and I went
years and years with no treatment whatsoever, because for me I tried to run from it for
a long time. I didn't want to deal with it. But now that I have it has changed my life
a lot for the better.
Mary Murphy: The patient population is, I think, quite disadvantaged in this area. There's
often a lot of ignorance about HIV disease, about how it is transmitted, and I think that's
why it's so important to have so many other services available to our patient population
to help them stay in care and face this illness.
Titania Riley: A lot of people on a fixed income that are positive, and they're most likely
having trouble paying for medical bills, food, transportation, mental health, mental health,
mental health (laughs). Just knowing you have a support system, knowing somebody's there,
and you're not going through it by yourself.
Patient: I'm HIV positive, and I don't have to go eventually break my neck to try to
find help. The help was there when I first came in. Like I said, I really knew nothing
about Ryan White until I moved into the shelter and it got explained to me and then once I
realized that seeing all the services that benefited because of him it was very beneficial.
Brandi Bowen: After Katrina, our entire system of care was essentially utterly decimated. Imagine
an environment where there were virtually no office space, there were virtually no clinicians,
but at the same time as our clients were able to return or had remained in the New Orleans
area, they knew that this was the HIV care system that they knew that they were comfortable
with, that they quickly return to the New Orleans area seeking that care.
Mary Murphy: We were able to regroup shortly after Katrina and we had sort of roving HIV
clinics at various sites around the city where there was availability of a physical setting
to give medical care.
Tacy Slater: Here at the University of Nebraska Medical Center Specialty Care Center, we serve a great number
of minorities. We have a very large population here from Southern Sudan. We also serve a
large Hispanic population in addition to our Latino culture we also serve an Asian population.
Patient: Because of Ryan White, I am still living a healthy life and my boyfriend and
I are still together and he is negative.
Susan Swindells, MD: What's underappreciated is the secondary prevention effect in that
people that are treated are much less likely to infect others and so getting everybody in care
and on treatment has a big ripple effect in terms of the community.
Daniel Cobos: The rural population, that's a hard group because there's still a lot of
stigma in rural parts of the state. We had outreach clinics that would go out to rural
parts of the state. There are infectious disease providers out in rural parts but people are
afraid to go because they don't want to be seen so they will travel here to Omaha and
that can be a problem. It's distance, weather, but we do have funding through Ryan White to get people here through
transportation services so we find a way to get them here.
Patient: For me, it's been a lifesaver because before that I had nowhere to go. I had no answers,
nobody had any kind of hope for you. They're all being in one place like this, it's made
it a hundred percent better.
Tacy Slater: Now we're telling people "you can get on with your life," you know, get yourself tested,
get yourself into care, get yourself on some medications and we'll get you moving forward.
Narrator: The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program plays a critical role in the United State's
public health response to HIV.
Working with cities, states, and local community-based
organizations, the Program funds a comprehensive system of care and treatment for more than
half a million people living with HIV each year.