Hospital program treats under-insured HIV patients

Using a three-year, $1.2 million grant, UW Hospital in the past year has treated 103 HIV-positive individuals who do not have adequate health insurance.

The grant, know as the Ryan White Title III program, provides HIV treatment and comprehensive health care from a team of specialty physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers and dieticians.

Primary care services under the program include diagnosis and treatment of HIV disease, early intervention and prevention of HIV related complications, general medical care, referrals to specialty clinics and screening for clinical trials.

“This is just like any other primary care program where we treat the whole individual not just the HIV,” says UW Hospital’s Frank Grazziano. “If they are HIV positive, we go beyond the disease to make sure that issues such as dental, mental health and nutrition are addressed.”

The program, one of two in Wisconsin, also includes statewide outreach and education as well as the development of satellite clinics that provide services to outlying communities.

The Ryan White program, administered by the federal Health Resources Services Administration, is named in honor of an Indiana teenager whose struggle with AIDS and against AIDS-related discrimination helped educate the nation about the needs of people with HIV. White died in 1990, at the age of 19, just a few months before Congress passed the act that bears his name.

An estimated 4,000 HIV-infected individuals live in Wisconsin, and the program expects to enroll up to 100 patients a year.

For more information on UW Hospital’s HIV Care Program and Ryan White Title III services call: 608-263-9346.