Have your Senators signed on to stop the AIDS drug access crisis?

A new campaign asks you to call your U.S. Senator THIS WEEK and ask them to sign a letter, sponsored by a bipartisan group of 25 Senators, urging their colleagues to help stop a growing crisis in domestic access to HIV/AIDS drugs.

Since 1987, the federal AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) has made grants to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, which in turn provide needed medication to people with HIV and AIDS who are uninsured or can't afford the drugs. These programs helped transform the HIV epidemic in the United States and allowed people to live much longer lives. Most of the program's clients are low-income men of color.

However, increasing rates of new infections, more and better drugs, and especially the mounting state budget crises resulting from the ravages of the Bush economy, have also pushed many states to the limit in the past year--as the Washington Post reported recently along with much of the lgbt press. States have begun taking steps to limit ADAP enrollments; at least 10 states have waiting lists, and in West Virginia and Kentucky, a few patients have died while on waiting lists. As the Post explains, more funding is desperately needed to insure Americans don't begin dying from AIDS in large numbers again. Look for your Senator on the list of signers, and call today.