Because we need his support and we need to get the media there. And, you know, through television and radio, we can reach millions of households.
So we need your support. And thank you for your time and 190 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 consideration.
Councilman Ortiz, Mike, I thank you for your continued attention. This has been a very long day for everybody, and I'm going to try to be as brief as I possibly can. I guess my position's a little bit different than everyone that has spoken before me. I am here primarily today as the mother that lost her only child to AIDS in 1994. Phillip was diagnosed in 1990 and only lived four years with the disease, for two reasons: At the time, the only protocol was massive doses of AZT, and he also had two strains of the virus. The one thing that I have found in the eleven years that I have been volunteering for the AIDS service organizations and also eleven years that I'm taking care of people hands-on that are HIV-infected or have full-blown AIDS, I found that the families, as soon as the person finds out that they are diagnosed, many of the families also fall apart at the same time. I could speak freely 191 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 about this. The gentleman that just flashed my picture, when he found out our son was HIV-positive, for seven and a half years, there was no communication between him and I, and, unfortunately, he had not made peace with his son before he passed away. The one thing that I hope to do is to bring the humanist to this disease. If I'm able to do this, then my son's life would not have been in vain, or those of my friends. What I'm going to ask is three things. The most difficult thing that I had to do is to sit down and plan the words and pick them for my obituary. I am going to ask each and every person in this room to take on the responsibility themselves. Mostly everyone in this room is very well versed about how someone becomes HIV-infected. Go home, sit around the table with your family, your friends. Speak to your coworkers. Give them the information that they need to live a life free of HIV. Is it hard? Yes, it is hard, but we're talking about eradicating this disease. We want the government to do so much, but you want to know 192 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 something? The people have the power. There's nothing special about me, but hopefully, someone that's listening to me today will go home and speak to their family and friends and loved ones and give them that message that they need. The second thing is, don't stop there. Go to your schools, the schools that your children are attending. Find out what curriculum are they being taught, are they being taught about STDs and everything is sugarcoated? Because if that's what they're being taught -- Mr. Ortiz, your children are in danger just as mine was. The last thing is, go to your houses of worship. Why is HIV and AIDS not being spoken by our pastors, our deacons, our rabbis. This is unacceptable by any means of the imagination. When people ask me, am I a good mother? If you had asked me that before 1990, I would have said yeah, but you want to know something? I can't say that anymore, because I gave Phillip good food, I gave him clothes, I gave him a roof over his head, but I didn't give that kid the information that he needed to know how to live in 193 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 a world free of HIV. It didn't matter my son's sexual orientation, his age, his race, his religion. Anyone is immune to this disease [sic], anyone can get it. " And the other thing I'm going to ask of each one of us, when we go home, look at ourselves in the mirror. In the last 20, years, could 10 each and every one of us say that our sexual 11 experiences were 100 percent protective? Did each 12 one of us, if we were engaged in risky behavior 13 involving needles, did we use a clean needle? 14 There might be one or two of in us this room that 15 could say yes. I'm not one of them. So, you see, 16 instead of it having been my son that I buried, it 17 could have been myself that my husband and son was 18 burying. 19 We need to keep the "human" in HIV.
20 When Philip was diagnosed -- and where I live at, 21 I live -- I'm the last street in Philadelphia. 22 It's considered Somerton, right around the Byberry 23 grounds. Absolutely no organizations were 24 available for services. They were so overwhelmed 25 with clients and there was not enough money. Even 194 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 till this day, some of the organizations go that far but still not very many. What I hope is that somehow I find out about them and I'm able to transport them. Not everybody in the far Northeast is rich and has cars, I could guarantee you this, and many are HIV-infected. My husband and I attended a meeting that George Kinney had, State Representative George Kinney, about the grounds on Byberry to be able to house some of the services that are in Center City to come to the far Northeast so that HIV accessibility will be available to those in that region. I could tell you something: Everybody got up off that table and walked out. I wasn't surprised, but guess what, I'm not going away, neither. I lost the most precious thing in my life; there's nothing nobody else could take from me. Mr. Ortiz, I may not know the faces of your children or those in the room here or their family and friends, but one thing I'm going to guarantee you, I'm going to give it all I got. And if this is what it takes to do it, then I hope there's a lot of other mothers that will join me 195 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 along the way, because I'm only one. If I could have the support of others, then together, we could be a force, and hopefully then people will realize that mothers do have a voice and that we do count. I thank you for your patience and time. " We are mothers that have either lost a child or children to HIV and AIDS, or we currently have a child or children suffering with HIV or AIDS. And we are very proud to be a program of the AIDS Fund. The last thing I'd like to leave everyone with, in the letter that was sent to me, and it was asked to give new approaches on how to stop HIV, and I already explained those. The other thing that it said is, how do you enlist more volunteers? I have one the solutions for you right now: Join with us October the 21st this year for the AIDS Walk. Sponsor a team, help us raise money. This year, the AIDS Fund sponsored over 38 organizations that received money allocated to them, organizations of every race and 196 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 religion. Just think, 38 organizations received money. If we could have more people participate in the AIDS Walk this year, hopefully more organizations will receive money and the money that they receive, the amount will be increased also. Each of us are responsible for each other. And this is the one thing, I know each of you could speak about City and State; I want to talk one-on-one, the human element. Thank you. And God bless you for allowing all of us to be here and to do this. This is something I dreamed of for 11 years. Thank you. )
I understand. Like I said, I had someone very close to me who died of AIDS. And the hardest thing was to explain it to a Puerto Rican family and Puerto Rican parents what that disease was and how it happened and its -- and all of the other things that then come with it, and it's very difficult. But it has to be 197 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 done. And thank you for your efforts. Thank you. (Applause.)
Lisa Jordan, Damon Rosenweig, Laura Lau, David Moore, Ann Cribble (ph.). (Witnesses come forward.)
Lynn Hacekenberg, is she here? Marty Gillen? No? Shahiid Robinson and Barry Bush. (Witnesses come forward.)
My name is Damon Rosenweig, and I'm here today as a public health professional representing an issue, not an organization. The issue is that of HIV among intervenous drug users.
Sure. My name is Damon Rosenweig. I'm here today as a public health professional representing an issue, not an organization. And that issue is HIV among intervenous drug users. 198 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 Councilmember Ortiz and citizens of Philadelphia, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. " We have a complex emergency here in Philadelphia, and it goes by the name of HIV transmission by sharing syringes. According to the statistics published quarterly by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, currently, in the Philadelphia region, the Philadelphia planning region, 35 percent of the cases of AIDS have contracted the disease by intervenous drug use and sharing of needles, 35 percent. When you add in the sex partners and the children of those individuals, it goes up to 41 or 42 percent. That represents thousands of people. That is an emergency. Ten years ago, I finished a master's degree in public health and I've put it to work in public health programs, including HIV and AIDS and a half a dozen states across the United States in a half dozen states across the United States and in a half a dozen -- excuse me, a dozen countries 199 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 around the world. I have worked in Haiti, China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, South Sudan, Kenya, Burundi, the Congo, Sri Lanka, and the Ukraine. I have worked for Doctors Without Borders, International Medical Corps, Hospital Albert Schweitzer, Counterpart International, Harvard Institute of International Development. I have worked in Bush hospitals five miles from the front lines of jungle wars. I have worked on feeding programs and swamps full of starving children, in clinics in desert mountains where women have no rights, in refugee camps full of people driven from their homes by war. There are a handful of universities that teach courses in the kind of work that we do out there overseas. These courses are called "managing complex emergencies" out in these contemplated places. We didn't know university professors were coming up with this name, but it sure sounds right, managing complex emergencies. And we have a complex emergency here. Now, I'm not that special. I'm far from the first and I am not alone in recognizing 200 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 this complex emergency here in Philadelphia. Several years back, the people who were most affected by the emergency called it to the attention of Philadelphia's leadership. Philadelphia decided to call it an emergency, and Philadelphia quietly supported a few small programs to address this emergency. Today, the emergency is still here in Philadelphia, and the emergency keeps getting more complex. Pardon my presumption, but here in Philadelphia, we need to do more to manage this complex emergency. Now, the Pennsylvania Department of Health Statistics say that Philadelphia has an emergency with HIV and AIDS across all modes of transmission. The Pennsylvania Department of Health Statistics say that Philadelphia has an emergency with HIV drug use, both by whites as well as minorities. The Philadelphia Department of Health Statistics say that Philadelphia has an emergency with the whole range of health-care services for minorities. Department of Justice statistics say that Philadelphia has an emergency with the prosecution of drug use among minorities. 201 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 Now, all of these emergencies intersect, and that sure seems to me like a very complex emergency. Now the complex emergency of HIV transmission by sharing syringes calls for a whole toolbox full of solutions, and there is no need to reinvent the wheel here in Philadelphia because 45 of the 50 states in the United States have answered this by a whole range of measures. These measures show measurable results: They work. And it shows that a reduction of HIV transmission is possible.
This toolbox of solutions called "harm reduction," and that's a fancy way of saying today, right now, let's limit the damage while we work sincerely to fix the underlying problem. Sharing syringes is one of the great problems that leads to HIV transmission today. So reducing the chances of people sharing syringes brings a reduction in harm. People stop sharing syringes if have clean, sterile syringes available to them. Most states, most states, have expanded and increased the education and outreach that they support, most states. Most states in the United States have changed their regulations and now 202 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 allow pharmacies to sell syringes without prescriptions. Most states in the United States have allowed exchange programs. Many states have removed criminal penalties for the possession of syringes. Each of these measures helps. Not one is a cure-all, but they each reduce the number of people who share syringes, and that reduces the number of people who transmit and are infected with HIV. Each one of these measures acts as a partial solution to the complex emergency. Together, they make a strong toolbox for managing this complex emergency. And it sounds like all of this will encourage more drug use, but that's not what happens. It's been shown, it's scientific. In 45 states in the United States, in cities with complex emergencies, just like Philadelphia, real-life experience tells us that drug use does not increase. Real-life experience tells us that more people do seek drug treatment. Real-life experience tells us that less people become infected and other communicable diseases. You can look at the statistics, you can talk to the people 203 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 who are involved, and you can see it for yourself as a real-life experience. Harm reduction works. Now, I understand that these hearings are about bringing forward innovations in dealing with the complex emergencies of HIV and AIDS. Here in Philadelphia what many people would call untried ideas are, in reality, tried and true solutions that other states and cities have adopted. Pardon my presumption, but an innovation in our attitudes seems like a be good place to start.
Hi. My name is Laura Lau, and I'm the Program Coordinator at AIDS Services in Asian Communities. Our focus is the Asian-Pacific Island of communities, which includes Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians, and many, many other Asian ethnic groups, both immigrant and American-born. The API communities, which encompasses many languages and cultures, is actually, in 204 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 reality, ten years behind everybody else. Many Asian Pacific Islanders believe that they are immune to HIV, and there are even non-Asians who believe the same and actually seek them out for that very sole reason. We do what is financially possible: focusing on some Asian ethnic groups and trying our best with the others. This is probably the most difficult -- these are probably the most difficult meetings that I have with my staff. However, we know that there are some things that work with Asian Pacific Islander communities. They include the media campaigns that we have, which, unfortunately, are sporadic because of the lack of funding; and interpretation and translation programs. We are actually the Health Department's regional provider for interpretation and translation services. Even with those programs, we still must choose. A couple of months ago, ASIAC received funding for care outreach. Care outreach is our newest challenge. Our target for care outreach is Asian women who work in massage parlors. These women are actually sex workers. Sometimes they 205 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 volunteer to do this; many times they do not. Out of all Asian Pacific Islander women, they have the highest risk of contracting HIV. ASIAC is proud to have the nation's first care program focusing on these women. We hope you understand the value and importance of having an HIV care program that is directed to a population that is overlooked because of its illegal immigration status, limited English proficiency, and nature of their work. We did not receive full funding for this project; we received half. Instead of providing outreach to ten massage parlors, we will only be able to provide to it five. There are 15 or more massage parlors in Center City and many more outside of it. ASIAC will be providing testing, counseling, case management, and referrals to only a fraction of the at-risk women who work in these places. We need more funding to help these women and reach them. We are proud of our accomplishments, but much more work to do. We admit that we cannot equally reach all of the Asian communities in Philadelphia. We know the needs of our 206 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 communities and we have the approaches to reach them. It is limited funding which prevents us from effectively doing our work. With more money, ASIAC would be able to reach groups that need it. Lastly, the Asian Pacific Islander AIDS agencies in other major cities, including New York, envy the City of Philadelphia because of its continual commitment to funding innovative approaches in reaching Asian Pacific Islanders. We hope this continues.
Good afternoon. I'm Lisa Jordan, Manager of School and Community Training at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Red Cross. I would like to thank City Councilman Angel Ortiz for the invitation today and extend our gratitude to the Public Health and Human Services Committee for the opportunity to present testimony on these critical issues. I have three pages here, which I won't read.
But I think there are 207 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 three things that I would like to focus on and also reiterate the growing theme from today's testimony from several AIDS service organizations here and the City Health Department, that prevention does work. With the American Red Cross since 1985, we've reached over 750,000 men, women, and children with skills and training on HIV and AIDS. Locally, our programs have been innovative. In 1998, our chapter here in Philadelphia was awarded the Elizabeth Dole President Award for our locally-developed HIV/AIDS Teen Peer Training Program. Since 1998 -- one of the things I would like to highlight specifically -- on a local level, the Red Cross is currently equipping faith-based organizations and communities in Philadelphia with necessary tools to respond and address HIV/AIDS within their respective communities. Through the support of the AIDS Activity Coordinating Office, we've been very fortunate in targeting faith-based programs, targeting a captive audience of women, men, and children, a captive audience of families, people 208 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 who are there as one family unit in a place where they are going there for a safe haven to get care, seek guidance, and this is a great opportunity for faith-based organizations to embrace HIV/AIDS prevention education. But one of the growing concerns I think from today, as you've heard, is that HIV infection has reached a new crescendo recently. And some of the recommendations that we can offer up or maybe some of the challenges that we are all facing is just the fact that there is a growing public perception that HIV and AIDS can be easily managed by drug treatments, and this is definitely undermining prevention education strategies and practices. Recently, there have been several documented reports in the prevention education field of people lessening their precautions to practice behaviors that will reduce their risk of HIV infection. Let us be clear here: There is no 22 cure for HIV or AIDS, and until there is one, prevention is the most cost-effective and effective means to stopping the spread of HIV infection. 209 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 In closing, the Red Cross and other AIDS service organizations could not do what we do without public funding. Without public funds filling the gap, many HIV/AIDS services -- and I think we've heard many of the cases and stories here -- would suffer here or even disappear. Over the recent years, the pool of private-foundation philanthropic funds have become smaller and smaller. The resulting decrease in public awareness has resulted in a correlative reduction in private-foundation funds to support prevention programs. The need for public funds is more apparent now than ever before. The increasing number of adolescents and women of colors answering the ranks of infected and in the danger of people becoming complacent about practicing safer behaviors only demonstrates the need to continue to fund HIV/AIDS services that work and work effectively. Thank you, Councilman Ortiz and the members of the Public Health and Human Services Committee.
Thank you. 210 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 (Applause.)
I am David Moore. On July 5th of 1999, I was rushed to the hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and HIV, all in those same minutes. Really not HIV -- I had full-blown AIDS. I was a national writer and an advocate for inner-city education, and my life began to unravel. What I'd like to -- have two words for you today: Triple trouble. Those people who are suffering from HIV, those people who have a mental illness, and those people who are suffering from an addiction. That the focus of these people with triple trouble, myself included, because if you take your mind, your body and spirit, there's a chance that you will not go and relapse, you will not go and lose your sanity, and that you will not go and continue to spread HIV. And so the focus -- I'm the director of a brand-new organization in Bucks County, along with partner and friend Lamont Bell, who's behind me. We were just funded by AACO. Our salaries 211 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 are $2400 for the whole year, and we have over 100 hours where we volunteer each week, searching out those people in Bucks County for recovery and mental illnesses. And so I'd like to ask you today to really look at that population. I know it's a special-needs population or the population that is at high risk, but I have lost so many people in the last couple of months who have come into recovery houses, only thing to find out that they had HIV and went back to their addiction. And so I'm asking you today, wherever new funding is available, I'd like to be able to take a look at that and see. I thank you very much for your time. Believe me, months ago, I never thought that I 18 would be speaking in front of you in this beautiful building. And I dedicate my time today to my partner of 11 years who committed suicide on the day that we found out that we had AIDS. Thank you.
Thank you. Appreciate that. (Applause.) 212 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116
Good afternoon, Councilman Ortiz. As you know, we have met one another quite a few times at different meetings. What I'm here to speak to you today about is, I'm an ex-inmate that just came home from the State penitentiary. I suffer with HIV, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C.
And I'm a member of ACT UP-Philadelphia and also a graduate of TEACH Outside, and I'm also going through TEACH, Project TEACH right now, at Philadelphia Fight. What I would like to speak to you about is HIV and AIDS inside the prisons, people with lived who are incarcerated and the deadly lack of access to health care they face while they are doing time. AACO's shameful lack of funding for their own programs in the Philadelphia jails and their chronic unfunding of lifesaving programs that focus on inmates and ex-inmates living with 213 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 the virus, health care in the Philadelphia jails, exactly statistics are hard to get, but from the little we know, of the 7,000 prisoners doing time in Philadelphia, anywhere from 5 to 12 percent are living with HIV and AIDS, very high. The high quality of HIV and AIDS ratio in the Philadelphia jails are higher for the women, more so than it is for the men in any prison across the state, federal, or county system. The present health care is run like a business up on State Road. Our tax dollars pay health services and HMO to run an aspect of health care. ACT UP has learned that Prison Health Services would rather increase their profits than provide the basic medical care that all Philadelphians with AIDS are entitled to. There are common complaints. I want to share this one with you. A prisoner was diagnosed inside the Philadelphia jail that had -- he needed insulin to sustain his life. This man was denied the insulin that he needed. His name is Jose Ortiz. This man was placed inside of a cell. He went into a diabetic coma, he never came out of it. 214 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 We turned around -- we have letters coming in from the -- all the Philadelphia prison systems that we decided to send into the prisons and ask inmates about the standard of care that they receive. So far, myself, since I'm the contact person, I have about 30 letters that then came back to me from inmates inside the prisons that's telling us what's going on inside there. Now --
I would appreciate it if you would give me copies of those letters.
Also, I don't have that much time Councilman Ortiz, 'cause I have teaching I must do. There's one other thing I would like to touch base on, and I will continue all of this at our town meeting tomorrow night at Temple University. Something that Mr. Cronauer said earlier during his testimony that medication is given to inmates upon release. That's a lie. Medication is only given to State inmates upon 215 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 release. A State inmate receives 30 days' worth of medication and a State inmate receives a packet which he is given access to different protocols of services that's provided outside on these streets. Inmates that are coming from the Philadelphia jails, these county prisons, are not getting any kind of packets like this. They're not getting any kind of medications. They're not even seeing HIV specialists; they are seeing just a primary care doctor, a doctor that handles just chronic illnesses, but not a specialist that specializes in HIV and other opportunistic infections, they do not see this. You have inmates that come inside the Philadelphia prisons that, when they are arrested, they have medications on them. The medications is taken from them and thrown in the trash. You have inmates inside there, upon coming into the prisons, once they get there, it takes them anywhere from two weeks to three weeks to see a doctor. When you put in sick-call slips, you don't see no physician; you see a physician's assistant. 216 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 Now, this city pays Prison Health Services $25 million a year to provide a standard of care, which the standard of care is not being provided.
We're having hearings on those, and they're not finished yet, Shahiid, so we're going to be investigating the prison health system even further. We will have hearings on the prison health system and you can come back at that time and testify to it. But we will have the follow-up hearing on that very soon.
Okay. The only thing we would ask, that ACT UP would ask of City Council, is that as we know, the Prison Health Services contract runs out as of next month. We asking the City Council to take in -- not to allow their contract to be renewed.
No, we are saying that you can take in -- we know you don't renew the contract, but you have a big say in their contract renewal.
We will have a say 217 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 in it, that's right.
And we trust that it's up to you and the people of this city to stop them from going back there and causing catastrophe and death again.
Okay, my name's Barry Bush and from ACT UP-Philadelphia. And I'm here because I'm actually our appointed overseer for the names-reporting, stopping names-reporting campaign, and find myself in really a unique position, so unique that my ending sentence to my speech was going to be "I urge Council to pass a resolution demanding the City Board of Health adopt a noncompliance stance." And I say thank you, 'cause I've already heard you say that you're already going to do that. Regrettably, I don't think -- I'm disappointed in some of the response you've gotten from your questions from some of the people regarding this issue. They seemed not totally 218 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 well enough informed. You'll see in front of you, I've passed up a fax sheet.
The fax sheet will be put into the record. We will put the resolution in. Like I said, if you can help us with the wording and the drafting --
-- it would be very nice. You know, just forward it to my office.
Sounds good. Could I just finish by saying -- I was going to say anyway that I don't want to take up any more time just between me and you in reading this out loud.
Okay, but if I could be of any help to your staff in writing the resolution, 219 5/1/01 HEALTH & HUMAN SVCS. - RES. 010116 I --
Well, that concludes the hearing of the Health and Human Services Committee hearing on Resolution 010116. And this committee stands in recess until the call of the Chair. I want to thank the Health Department and the Commissioner and the staff for the work and all of the individuals that really helped make this hearing possible. This will not be the end of this because I think we need to continue the educational aspect of this on and on. If you have some clarification, because I saw you shaking your head, just write it up so we could put it into the record, okay? Thank you very much, all of you, for being patient and being here. (Adjourned 2:17 p.m.) 220 C E R T I F I C A T E I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Tuesday, May 1, 2001, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES RES. NO. 010116 __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, Registered Professional Reporter