Hurricane Katrina HIV-related information

AIDS Treatment News, August 26, 2005

September 14: Besides the thousands who have been killed, about a million people have had to leave their homes, and most cannot go back soon--if ever. Hundreds of thousands have lost their jobs and income, and many have lost papers and medicines, or are in other states where their health coverage might not apply. An estimated 8,000 of those who had to evacuate have HIV. Here are some Web and telephone starting points for finding HIV-relevant information, especially but not only on medical care: we also include some non-HIV sites. We will update this list: for the current version, see www.aidsnews.org/katrina/.> Even if there is a search function on the Web site, it is often better to scan through all the information to find what is useful to you.

For Patients and Healthcare Professionals

www.nmac.org--The National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) home page has a link to "detailed medical, legal, and social information and resources geared to those living with HIV/AIDS impacted by Katrina, and those who are assisting, or wishing to assist, them." Note that there are currently five pages of hurricane information, and you need to go to the bottom of each page to find the links to the other pages.

http://www.thebody.com/katrina.html--See The Body's own coverage, the Snapshots series--also the HIV links, mainly medical.

http://poz.com/katrina/index.shtml--POZ Magazine's Katrina page.

For Healthcare Professionals and Patients

http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/news/inthenews/katrina.htm--excellent government site for Federal medical information, including toll free hotline for physicians or patients to reach infectious-disease experts.

http://64.177.16.246/aahivm_blog/or http://www.aahivm.org--The American Academy of HIV Medicine has created an emergency blog for Gulf Coast coverage. People are using it to post documents from government agencies and credible organizations. Much of the information is mainly for professionals or relief workers, but patients may find it useful as well. You can get to the blog from a link on the home page (the Web link above).

You will need to register for the emergency blog (which was hacked in early September and had to be revised). Registration is easy; you need to make up a user name and password, and supply your full name, and an email address. After you register, you will be able to choose among seven different blogs (so far). We suggest looking through all of them to find information you may need.

Currently new users should be aware of one glitch: just after you register, it may not be clear how to proceed to the information. In this case, click the title in large white type under the picture--which is a Web link, although as of today it does not look like one.

* Volunteer needs by clinics, hospitals, and other medical facilities: If you need volunteer HIV physicians to help with disaster relief, contact AAHIVM by sending at] email to howard at aahivm dot org (reformat the email address of course).

http://www.idsociety.org/HIVMA_Template.cfm--The HIV Medicine Association has relevant links.

http://www.tdh.state.tx.us/hivstd/meds/news.htm--Texas, with tens of thousands of refugees from New Orleans and elsewhere, quickly set up emergency procedures, including emergency application to ADAP for persons receiving ADAP in other states who are now in Texas due to the disaster. It also extended the time limit on emergency prescription refills (so that treatment will not be interrupted because final approval has not come through) from 72 hours to 30 days, except for Schedule II controlled substances.

For refugees arriving in Massachusetts, the state is planning to extend ADAP eligibility to those temporarily residing there. Medical arrangements may be made on arrival at Camp Edwards, or individuals may call the Community Research Initiative of New England, 1-800-228-2714, for information about applying to the Massachusetts HIV Drug Assistance Program. For general information about HIV/AIDS services in Massachusetts, call the AIDS Action Committee hotline at 1-800-235-2331.

For other states, check the sites of the state government and of local HIV/AIDS organizations. Lists of major organizations by state can be found by starting at the links above, especially www.nmac.org and http://www.aahivm.org

Much work remains to be done to provide access to medical care to persons forced from their homes by disaster. Medicaid, Medicare, ADAP, and the various private insurance programs are all relevant. AAHIVM, HIVMA, and IDSA (the Infectious Diseases Society of America) wrote a joint letter to Mark McClellan of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, urging it to waive "certain Medicare and Medicaid requirements to allow providers in affected areas to care for patients free front the many conditions of participation in these federal programs." (The full text of the letter is at http://www.idsociety.org/HIVMA_Template.cfm.) Note: See "Simplified Medicaid Paperwork--But ..." below.

Also do your own Web searches at www.google.com or elsewhere, such as "hurricane katrina" HIV Many AIDS sites are starting emergency information pages.