$1 Million Grant to Fund HIV Care for the Uninsured

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Friday, 28 May 2004

Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH) has awarded a three-year $1.1 million grant to the Infectious Disease Clinic at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. The new grant will support care of low-income patients with HIV and other conditions that complicate HIV treatment.

"The foundation's funds will be committed to serving the growing needs of people with HIV disease who, due to lack of insurance or other issues of access, would otherwise receive little or no care for their complex illnesses," says project director, Victoria Fraser, M.D., professor of medicine and co-director of the Division of Infectious Diseases.

MFH was created in 2000 as part of an agreement between Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Missouri, the Missouri Department of Insurance and the Missouri Attorney General. MFH, which first began awarding grants in 2002, works to support public and private health-care services for the uninsured and the underserved. It is the largest health-care foundation in the state, as well as one of the largest foundations of its kind in the country.

In addition to funding patient care, the grant will be used to expand and improve psychiatric counseling and to better monitor HIV's effects on the liver.

"This clinic cares for more indigent HIV patients than any other health-care provider in the region," says John Holste, project manager for the Division of Infectious Diseases. "Helping those patients with psychiatric issues that sometimes go hand-in-hand with the disease is a real need."

The clinic currently has a mental health specialist available for women and children. The new grant will allow the clinic to hire a second specialist to work with men and to expand collaborations with other social service and mental health programs like Project ARK (AIDS/HIV Resources and Knowledge), which is run by the Division of Pediatrics at the School of Medicine and provides comprehensive care and social services to children with HIV and their families.

Expanding the clinic's monitoring of liver conditions linked to HIV is another focus of the grant. Infections by hepatitis B or C, two viruses that can have harmful effects on the liver, is particularly high among Midwesterners and can be a source of serious difficulty for patients with HIV.

"In addition, we're seeing patients with liver problems that don't seem to be associated with a hepatitis infection," Holste says. "We're not sure if that's a complication of HIV or of HIV medications, and we finally will be able to do some monitoring and perhaps improve our ability to treat these problems."

Though 85 percent of the grant's funds will be used directly for patient service, the grant is also structured to help the clinic seek future funding from other agencies and plan for future partnerships.

In addition to the new grant, MFH funds programs at the School of Medicine dedicated to making sure children have appropriate car seats and that HIV-infected women and expectant mothers receive necessary medications.

For more information, or to contact Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, see their website at: medschool.wustl.edu