News 12 at eleven o'clock -- March 14, 2010

COLUMBIA, S.C. --- South Carolina has one of the highest rates of people infected with AIDS in the US. And some health workers say with state money for medicine set to disappear, that could mean those numbers will soon get even higher.

Pastor Andy Sidden spends each Sunday at Garden of Grace United Methodist Church in Columbia. As he talks after church with members, he knows each day is a gift.

Andy was diagnosed with HIV in 1990, and as his illness progressed, so did the cost of treatment.

“I knew I couldn't afford treatments for bladder cancer and AIDS,” he says. “One prescription was $500 a month, and I was taking six to seven different prescriptions.”

“The ADAP program saved my life, I have no doubt.”

Andy is one of more than three thousand people across South Carolina that rely on the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). But with a recent vote to cut the program’s $2.4 million from the state budget, that could mean he and others like him are left without treatment.

“My first thought was panic, and I panicked for myself and did not think about others, I’m sorry to say. There are people who will die if this is not taken care of,” he stresses.

There are currently more than 14,000 people in South Carolina living with HIV or AIDS, more than 1,000 of those in the Aiken region.

The price of medicine is up from just last year; on average it costs more than $1,000 a month to treat just one patient.

“ADAP is, for most people, the only way they will be able to access that medication they need to save their lives,” says Carmen Hampton Julius, executive director for Palmetto AIDS Life Support Services.

And she says without that help, the epidemic could get worse.

“When persons are not on medication, their viral load increases and they are more able to infect others,” she says. “It’s a public health issue, it's an economic issue, but it's also an issue of who we are as a community.”

The program was threatened three years ago, but saved after people like Andy protested the cut. And now he's hoping and praying they can save it again.

“I think no one in the state wants to see someone die from lack of medicine,” he says. “I truly believe people are better than that.”

Andy will be one of the main speakers at a rally this week to protest the cuts. It will take place this Wednesday morning at 11:30 at the State House Rotunda in Columbia.