In the wake of recent reports showing decreased international funding to combat HIV/ AIDS, Migrant Clinicians Network continues to make strides in connecting patients with HIV/ AIDS to care in the US and throughout the world.
This World AIDS Day, MCN is “Uniting for Action” with the clinicians, service providers, community health workers, researchers, community members and patients who are battling HIV/ AIDS.
In the nearly 30 years since its discovery, drug treatment and public health interventions for HIV/ AIDS have seen tremendous progress. And for more than 20 years, the Migrant Clinicians Network has worked to educate clinicians, service providers and the community about HIV/ AIDS through training, technical assistance and program initiatives.
“Movement has been a major contributor to the spread of the disease, yet little attention has been paid to provide care for the migrant population,” said Deliana Garcia, Director of International Research and Development.
“Migration has always had a role in HIV/ AIDS,” Garcia said. “MCN has made it part of our core responsibilities [as an organization] to ensure that migration is not a reason why anyone is denied access to care.”
To address the need to establish an effective mechanism to connect mobile patients to care, MCN created TBNet. Originally established in 1996, TBNet has facilitated continuity of care for mobile tuberculosis patients for 15 years. In that time, TBNet has established continuity of care for patients in 56 countries and has grown
into Health Network, a broader continuity of care initiative to serve the needs of migrant patients with a range of primary care conditions including cancer, diabetes, pregnancy and HIV/ AIDS.
Similar to its work with TB patients, MCN has worked for the past 4 years to facilitate continuity of care for HIV/ AIDS patients throughout the world. According to Garcia, MCN has received 24 HIV/ AIDS referrals from clinicians since January of this year to help ensure continuity of care for patients.
People living with HIV are more vulnerable to other illnesses. One of four people living with HIV will die of tuberculosis, Garcia said, adding that it is the leading cause of death among people with HIV-infection.
AIDS Drug Assistance Programs, state-administered programs providing AIDS medications to low-income patients who do not have sufficient health insurance, are often under-funded, leaving many low-income patients without access to care.
“We need to align ourselves with the goal of the CDC,” Garcia says, “to bring the individuals who need care into care to prevent the transmission of the disease.” More than an estimated 56,000 Americans become infected with HIV each year, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services website AIDS.gov. According to the website, 33.4 million people worldwide currently live with HIV/ AIDS, nearly all of which live in low to middle income countries.
The Migrant Clinicians Network is a national, not-for-profit organization founded in 1984 by clinicians working in migrant health. Today, MCN empowers clinicians and communities to strengthen clinical care and health care infrastructure for migrants and is a force for health justice for the mobile poor.
Click here for more information and resources related to HIV/AIDS in the migrant population.
In commemoration of World AIDS Day, Farmworker Justice and the Rural Women’s Health Project are re-releasing a one-minute PSA in Spanish on HIV transmission and prevention for Hispanic communities. The following is the voice of an HIV infected mother who goes into detail about how she was infected and how she can't give breast milk to her newborn- or he too could become infected with HIV. Visit the Rural Women's Health Project website to download this mp3 audio clip.
