Funds Dry Up for AIDS Drug, So County AZT Effort to End

Lack of funding is forcing the county to phase out its free program of providing the AIDS treatment drug AZT, beginning Sept. 30, the county’s public health officer said Thursday.

Dr. L. Rex Ehling said neither the state nor the federal government has budgeted more money to continue providing the expensive drug for AIDS patients who are unable to pay for it.

AZT prescriptions cost about $700 a month per patient.

“I am still hoping that (the federal government) will put some more money into this AZT program,” Ehling said. “Otherwise, I think, indeed, that we may lose ground in being able to prolong life (of AIDS patients) and in offering the kind of care we want to extend.”

Retards Progression of AIDS

AZT, azidothymidine, retards progression of acquired immune deficiency syndrome and is the only AIDS medicine approved for use by the Food and Drug Agency, Ehling noted. No cure for AIDS has been found.

Last January, the county received $301,702 in a one-time federal grant. That grant was for a nine-month pilot program to offer AZT to AIDS patients who could not otherwise afford it.

As of Thursday, 47 county AIDS patients were getting AZT free under the program, Ehling said. An AIDS patient may now qualify for the free AZT if the patient makes a yearly salary of less than $40,000.

Beginning Sept. 30, Ehling said, no new patients will be signed up for the free AZT. However, he added that the 47 current patients will continue to receive AZT until the rest of the $301,702 grant is exhausted--probably by January, 1989. At that time, Ehling said, those patients will have to start paying for AZT.

While Ehling expressed hope that the program may get an 11th-hour reprieve through money from the federal government, he said the Orange County Health

Care Agency has no choice but to announce an end to AZT assistance.

So far, Ehling said, the federal government has denied requests from state and local health agencies to continue paying for the AZT program. He said the state also has no money in the 1988-89 fiscal budget to subsidize AZT.

Ehling stressed that AZT prolongs the life of AIDS patients and frequently enables them to hold jobs longer and to lead more normal lives.

“(AZT) offers a measure of hope,” he said. “The converse is that lack of the drug, by cutting it off, reduces hope and brings a sort of measured desperation.”

Parrie Graham, executive director of the nonprofit AIDS Services Foundation for Orange County, deplored the lack of government money for the AZT program.

“This is going to cost government more in the long run,” Graham predicted. “I think it (the cutoff of free AZT drugs) will force more people with AIDS to quit their jobs, liquidate their assets and thereby become eligible for Medi-Cal.”

Medi-Cal is the state and federally funded program to provide medical care to the poor. AZT is provided to AIDS patients who are certified for Medi-Cal.

Ehling said Graham’s prediction about more AIDS patients having to quit jobs to get AZT through Medi-Cal may prove to be true. “Because of the cost of the drug, it becomes a dilemma,” he said.

Rapidly Growing Expense

Medi-Cal is one of the most rapidly growing expenses in the state budget each year. Since the early 1980s, state legislators have repeatedly sought ways to trim the escalating costs of Medi-Cal and to limit its expansion.

“Many people (with AIDS) who get early treatment and good care and support keep on working and keep on being productive,” Ehling said.

“But if the money runs out for AZT, then what is predicted may happen. People will need to spend (most of) their money and will have to quit their jobs and go on Medi-Cal.”