AIDS Advocates Seek Change in Federal Law

In the South, where AIDS patients receive less money per capita than those in California and the Northeast, activists are lobbying for a bigger share of federal money, reports the Associated Press.

AIDS activists say the federal law—which sends about $2-billion a year to local and state programs that provide health care, drugs, and other aid—needs to be updated to reflect the spread of AIDS to rural areas outside major cities.

Congress is attempting for the first time since 2000 to amend the Ryan White CARE Act of 1990, which is named for the Indiana teenager who died that year after contracting AIDS from treatments for hemophilia. A hearing on the bill is scheduled for Thursday.