A program designed to assist Dallas County residents with HIV/AIDS services was recognized with a resolution in Dallas County Commissioners Court.
Lionel Hillard, Ryan White Planning Council chair, Helen Turner Goldenberg, Ryan White Planning Council vice chair, and Zachary Thompson, Dallas County Health and Human Services director accepted the resolution presented by Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price.
“The Ryan White Planning Council, Dallas County Auditor’s Office, Dallas County Health and Human Services staff, Ryan White-funded agencies, and the Dallas County Commissioners Court are to be commended for their ongoing commitment to Ryan White services in the Dallas Eligible Metropolitan Areas,” said Commissioner Price.
The program was named for a young man diagnosed with AIDS following a blood transfusion. Ryan White fought AIDS-related discrimination in his Indiana community and educated the nation about his disease. He died months before Congress passed the legislation in 1990. August 18, 2015 marked the 25th anniversary of the Ryan White CARE Act.
The law created what is known as the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program. Funded at $2.32 billion in fiscal year 2015, the program works with cities, states, and local community-based organizations to support a coordinated and comprehensive system of care and treatment. At the time the bill became law, more than 150,000 AIDS cases had been reported in the U. S., and more than 100,000 of those people had died.
Currently, more than 1.2 million people in the U.S. are living with HIV, including over 16,000 in Dallas County. In 2014, 887 individuals were diagnosed with HIV and 400 were diagnosed with AIDS in Dallas County.
Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Zachary Thompson thanked the court for the resolution and added, “The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program is vital to Dallas County residents who need assistance.”
For more information, visit: http://www.dallascounty.org/
