A quarter-century ago, when the outlook for people with AIDS was bleak, an outpatient clinic was dedicated on the Charity Hospital campus for people who couldn’t afford care anywhere else. The clinic, which was launched with a $1.6 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was designed to accommodate a patient population estimated at 100 people in the New Orleans area. The waiting rooms and halls of the brick building became crammed with desperate people who were infected with the human immunodeficiency virus and needed help.
Since the 1990s, a cavalcade of drugs has become available. Taken in the right combinations, they can weaken HIV by attacking it at several points in its reproductive cycle. While there is still no cure for AIDS, careful treatment and monitoring have turned HIV infection into a manageable chronic condition for many people afflicted with it, and people are living with the virus for decades.
In New Orleans alone, more than 600 clinic patients have been followed for more than 10 years, said David Little, the clinic’s program manager.
According to state figures, about 7,180 HIV-infected people live in the New Orleans area, and about 2,000 of them need the care that the clinic provides.
Given that demand, the HIV Outpatient Program, which is part of the Interim LSU Public Hospital, moved into a 25,000-square-foot space at 2235 Poydras St. and started seeing patients in June.
An open house is being held there Friday from 2 to 5 p.m.
The clinic moved there from its second home, at 136 S. Roman St., because it was demolished to make way for the University Medical Center.
About 70 full- and part-time employees work at the clinic, which has space for patient examinations, dental and optical treatments, meeting rooms and a nutrition center. Clinic personnel participate in clinical trials of drugs for adults, teenagers and children.
Its budget is slightly more than $5 million, Little said.
HIV is spread through sexual contact and contaminated hypodermic needles. Throughout the history of the AIDS epidemic, gay and bisexual men constitute the group with the biggest proportion of HIV and AIDS diagnoses.
According to figures from NO/AIDS Task Force, the figures are especially high among African-American men, who account for 74 percent of HIV diagnoses and 78 percent of AIDS cases, even though they make up less than one-third of the population.
In an attempt to educate young black men about the dangers HIV can pose, the task force is launching The Movement, a community center at 4005 St. Claude Ave. that will offer service that include HIV testing, counseling and medical referral.
Its telephone number is 504.267.4288.
John Pope can be reached at email@example.com or 504.826.3317.