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Big money, few results: Illinois has spent millions to fight HIV and AIDS, but African Americans still struggle to receive the treatment they need.

Article Excerpt
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Post-lunch drowsiness was gently spreading through the banquet hall at the Hilton Hotel Springfield until Yvette Flunder started talking.

Standing next to three white, helium-filled balloons with red ribbons emblazoned on them and attached by a red string, the sturdily built Flunder instantly grabbed the attention of hundreds of service providers gathered at the HIV/STD Conference and refused to let go.

The San Francisco-based pastor began with a gospel song about God's grace giving people the will to endure.

Despite the valiant efforts of government-funded organizations and individuals, the disease's relentless advance has continued, she said. Flunder's volume rose, and her head bobbed around the microphone atop the wooden podium.

"I've lost a lot," Flunder said, the light from the chandelier-style lights glinting off her wristwatch, silver bracelet and glasses. She said she has 149 programs from the funerals she has officiated since 1986.

"Let me repeat, 'I've lost a lot," she said in her deep voice. Flunder's statement was a fitting one for African Americans and HIV and AIDS in Illinois.

This is not a story of unmitigated disaster or wanton neglect. Instead, it is one of honorable intentions and resources provided--but many road blocks existing on the way to success.

The state of Illinois has increased its funds by tens of million of dollars to combat HIV and AIDS--and created two funding sources designed to combat the epidemic among African Americans--but it still has failed to adequately meet the needs of its black residents with the virus.

African Americans constitute about 15 percent of Illinois' population, but more than 50 percent of people living with the virus, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health, which provided The Chicago Reporter with data from 2003 to 2007, the latest five years for which statistics are available. Among black people, men who have sex with men represent the largest percentage of new diagnoses--and a growing share of diagnoses for which risk factors are known from 2003 to 2007.

Meanwhile, the amount of prevention dollars in 2007 for African Americans represented only 30 percent of all prevention monies spent by the state--a significant drop from the 46 percent of all state prevention dollars used for black people in 2002.

Beyond these funding concerns, a combination of health department procedure and staffing, the comparatively small size of organizations working in the state's black communities, and an overlooked planning process have formed a lethal combination.

The consequence: African Americans, who many say need the support most, are not receiving the resources necessary to stop the epidemic that was originally seen as a white gay men's disease but which for decades has actually been on the rise most dramatically in communities of color.

The Reporter also found:

* The share of all prevention dollars spent in 2007 for the largest risk group--men who have sex with men--was lower than its share among diagnoses that year.

* The annual grant cycle used by the health department leads many nonprofits to have trouble fighting the virus.

* The health department is severely understaffed in administering the grants, and this is having a negative impact on the nonprofits' ability to provide existing services.

* The size of nonprofits working primarily in black communities is qualitatively smaller than the city's biggest organizations--a factor that makes them face more challenges in providing ongoing services.

* In 2007, the Illinois HIV Prevention Community Planning...

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