For immediate release: December 12, 2006

Contact: Karen Bates 803-750-5259 scaplwa@aol.com

SOUTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR SANFORD AND BUDGET BOARD FAIL TO ACT ON AIDS DRUG CRISIS

Columbia, SC— The South Carolina Budget and Control Board approved over $111 million in state spending at this morning’s meeting – including over $10 million for research on a Confederate-era submarine – but failed to take any action to provide emergency funding for the state AIDS Drug Assistance Program.

Four state residents have died of AIDS-related complications in recent weeks while on the 324-person ADAP waiting list.

Despite an outcry from AIDS activists in South Carolina and around the country, the BCB did not mention the AIDS treatment crisis at this morning’s meeting. BCB members, including Governor Mark Sanford, have the power to raise new items at each meeting, but all failed to act this morning.

“Poor people living with AIDS who end up on this waiting list are abandoned to sickness and death,” said Stephanie Williams, an HIV-positive woman in Orangeburg, SC and Chair of South Carolina-Campaign to End AIDS (SC-C2EA). “These budgeting decisions will hurt South Carolina. We need our neighbors well and participating in life, not wasting away in hospital beds.”

The BCB approved agenda items totaling over $111 million, including a Clemson University research project on the recently-discovered submarine.

“Drugs are available; people are ready to receive care. All we need is the $3 million dollars to pay for it,” said Karen Bates, an HIV-positive woman in Columbia, SC and co-Chair of SC-C2EA. “But at this BCB meeting the ADAP crisis was not on the agenda.”

BCB representatives say they are waiting for a formal request for ADAP funding from the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC). Health Commissioner Earl Hunter, however, has also failed to act. Advocates will push his office to make the request in time for the next BCB meeting in January.

South Carolina Campaign to End AIDS (www.c2ea.org/sc) is a statewide grassroots organization of people living with HIV/AIDS and our supporters. Utilizing the voice and experiences of persons living with and affected by HIV/AIDS, we are committed to improving the quality of life of individuals and families both infected and affected by the pandemic and to ending its effects on South Carolina.

For more details on the Budget and Control Board expenditures:

Visit the Budget and Control Board website here.

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