HIV/AIDS Funding: Labour budget cuts cost lives

An anonymous HIV testing survey by the Terrence Higgins Trust in 2004 found that one in seven men on the Brighton gay scene was HIV+. This devastating statistic is matched only by the fact that, according to a report released at the recent International HIV Conference, the city has the highest prevalence of HIV infection in the UK.

In the backdrop of this, it is shocking to hear of the 30 per cent cuts in HIV/Aids funding in Brighton and Hove, which the Green's councillor Bill Randall recently drew to public attention. The cuts have reduced spending from £437,000 in 2002/03 to £307,380 for this financial year, totalling more than 30 per cent of the budget if inflation is included.

This is because a new (and inflexible) funding formula for the main HIV/Aids budget set by the government has diverted resources to other social groups and away from gay men. This is to reflect the growing numbers of heterosexual people with the disease nationally. While this may make sense in other areas, it's disastrous for Brighton, where gay men still make up the bulk of infection rates.

In real terms this means that the 920 clients using the services of groups such as Body Positive and Sussex Beacon will be dramatically affected. The fact that funding will be cut altogether in two years time reminds me of how contemptuous our government has become of some of the most vulnerable in society. The health budget can clearly go to hell for the warmonger Blair, whose kids you know wouldn't end up suffering from cuts to HIV funding if one of them were diagnosed.

It is insulting to all of us that these things are happening. And while I salute the sterling work of NHS workers at the Wilde Clinic, the volunteers and staff of the Sussex Beacon, Body Positive, THT and others, they can not defeat HIV/Aids on their own. We need to engage with this syndrome, which is here and killing us and our community. We have to fight this killer with education and information before it claims any more of our loved ones. We need to be volunteering our time and raising funds.

A government which appears to have so much contempt for people with HIV should be reminded that it will pay politically for being so heartless and inflexible. At the local elections in May, we need to punish Labour for their unforgivable behaviour in accepting these cuts by voting for the only party �" the Greens �" which is committed to placing the health of every person in this city at the very top of the political agenda.

I devote this article to the memory of my late cousin Niamh Mac Cafferty 1980�"2006.