8
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2006
AIDS bill to shift funds to South
Amendments part
of reauthorization
BY NICK BUTLER
STAFF WRITER
Pending legislation in Congress
might bring new hope to North
Carolinians with HIV and AIDS.
Southern states, including
North Carolina, will receive more
federal funding for HIV/AIDS
treatment and prevention if pro
posed amendments to the Ryan
White CARE Act of 1990 are
approved.
The act is up for renewal, and
the proposed amendments have
been approved by committees in
the House and Senate.
However there is not yet a speci
fied date for when the bill will reach
' V'y.y
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ophomores Kaila Ramsey and Kevin Garret play a game of “Frisbee Roulette”
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sometimes accidently at unsuspecting passersby. “Grass doesn’t bounce,” Ramsey said.
“(Playing on the walkways) helps you fine-tune your accuracy because you can’t miss!”
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the Congress floor for debate.
“It certainly is exciting that
they’re redistributing the funds,”
said J. Wesley Thompson, a certified
physician’s assistant at Carolinas
Medical Center in Charlotte.
“It will allow us to do so much
more for the patients.”
Thompson is also a spokes
man for the Ryan White ACTION
Campaign, which has been lobby
ing for the renewal of the CARE
Act.
The UNC Student Global
AIDS Campaign also is pushing
for renewal of the act. It is host
ing an event where supporters
can sign a petition and view a
documentary on HIV and stigma
in Washington, D.C.-based black
communities at 8 p.m. Wednesday
in Saunders 220
Supporters of the petition pledge
ON THE FLY
“There has been an attempt to counter
the growing epidemic in the South. ...It
needs to be a national issue.”
EVELYN FOUST, hiv director for n.c. department of health and human services
that their vote will hinge on the
candidate’s support of the act.
With the proposed amendments,
the bill will send more money to
North Carolina for treatment and
prevention of HIV and AIDS.
“North Carolina will see a $16.7
million increase in funding,” said
Ashley Hoy, spokeswoman for U.S.
Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C.
Myrick, a member of the
House Committee on Energy and
Commerce, voted for the bill on
Wednesday, Hoy said.
She added that the legislation
News
passed by a wide margin in the
committee.
But U.S. Rep. Edolphus Towns,
D-N.Y., introduced a resolution
expressing concerns that areas with
high prevalence of HIV and AIDS,
including New York and California,
would lose vital funding.
The original law allocated much
of the funding to those areas.
In a press release, U.S. Sen.
Richard Burr, R-N.C., cosponsor of
the Senate bill, stated, “Ryan White
CARE Act funding must be distrib
uted more equally among states.
“In North Carolina we have
approximately 18,900 residents liv
ing with HIV and AIDS. It is time
for Ryan White funds to be distrib
uted more evenly so all patients,
not just those living in New York,
San Francisco and Boston, can
receive the care they need.”
Evelyn Foust, the HIV and sexu
ally transmitted disease director for
the N.C. Department of Health and
Human Services, said the realloca
tion will bring much needed aid to
Southern states.
“There has been an attempt to
counter the growing epidemic in
the South,” she said, adding that she
hopes leaders will support the bill.
“This can’t just be a North
Carolina issue. It needs to be a
national issue.”
Contact the State £s? National
Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
National and World News
Potential rival to
President Hu fired
SHANGHAI, China (AP) Shanghai’s top lead
er was dismissed Monday for alleged corruption,
the highest level official to be sacked in more than
a decade as President Hu Jintao consolidates his
power.
Chen Liangyu was fired as Shanghai’s Communist
Party secretary, kicked off the party’s powerful
Politburo and is under investigation by its anti-graft
watchdog, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
His dismissal “demonstrates the party’s determina
tion to fight corruption,” Xinhua said.
The move ends a potential challenge to Hu, who
has been targeting political opponents through an
anti-corruption crackdown in the run-up to a key
party congress in 2007. That meeting will reappor
tion jobs among the political elite.
Activist slain
in Kandahar
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan
(AP) Gunmen on a motor
bike Monday killed an Afghan
women’s rights activist who ran
an underground school for girls
during the Taliban’s rule the
latest victim of increasingly bra
zen militants targeting govern
ment officials and schools.
Safia Ama Jan, a provin
cial director for Afghanistan’s
Ministry of Women’s Affairs,
was slain outside her home in
Kandahar as she was on her way
to work, said Tawfiq ul-Ulhakim
Parant, senior adviser to the
women’s ministry in Kabul.
Are you currently experiencing
® . PAIN
W|jv around one or both of your lower (ff)jW
WISDOM TEETH?
UNC School of Dentistry is presently enrolling healthy subjects who:
If are non-smokers between the ages of 18 and 35
If have pain and signs of inflammation (pericoronitis)
around a lower wisdom tooth (3rd molar)
Participation requires three visits. Benefits for participating include:
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If a free dental cleaning
f up to $50.00 payment for your time
ff free consult regarding options for 3rd molar treatment
If interested, please contact: Tiffany V. Hambright, RDH
Clinical Research Coordinator • Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery
919-216-0493 (pager) • or email Tiffany_Hambright@dentistry.unc.edu
all pages/emails will be returned within 24 hours.
It is very important that we collect our data during a painful episode.
Please call as soon as you begin to experience symptoms to schedule
a screening appointment
Questions or concerns may also be directed to Dr. Matthew McNutt, DDS at 919-966-4428
UNC wants more
awareness of HIV
Offers free testing
and counseling
BY EMILY STEPHENSON
STAFF WRITER
“HIV doesn’t have a face.”
Sarahmona Przybyla, a coun
selor at Counseling and Wellness
Services, said she wants students
to know that the stereotypes about
HIV no longer apply.
The virus doesn’t affect only urban
dwellers, and young people are not
immune, said Przybyla, who works
with Carolina Health Education
Counselors for Sexuality,
The demographics of those
affected by HIV are changing, and
Przybyla said counselors want stu
dents to be aware that they are at
risk.
She said that in the state of
North Carolina there have been
close to 160 cases of college stu
dents infected with HIV in the past
five years.
Przybyla said counselors are
determined to educate students
about the risk of HIV on campus
and to make it easier for them to be
tested for the virus.
To ensure that students have basic
knowledge about HIV, its transmis
sion and how to protect themselves,
the service provides a three-step test
ing and counseling session.
Students can make appointments
anonymously to receive a free blood
test or, for $22, an oral HIV test.
Przybyla said the next step is
acquiring knowledge about what
HIV is and how it is transmitted.
U.S. airliners lift
total ban on liquids
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) - The government is
partially lifting its ban against carrying liquids and
gels onto airliners, instituted after a plot to bomb
jets flying into the United States was foiled, officials
said Monday.
“We now know enough to say that a total ban is
no longer needed from a security point of view,” said
Kip Hawley, head of the Transportation Security
Administration, at a news conference at Reagan
National Airport.
He said that most liquids and gels that air travel
ers purchase in secure areas of airports will now be
allowed on planes. He called the new procedures a
“common sense” approach that would maintain a
high level of security at airports but ease conditions
for passengers.
Top al-Qaida
leader killed
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -
British forces shot and killed
a leading al-Qaida terrorist
Monday more than a year after
he embarrassed the U.S. military
by making an unprecedented
escape from a maximum security
military prison in Afghanistan.
Omar al-Farouq was gunned
down after he opened fire on
British forces during a raid on
his home in Basra, 340 miles
southeast of Baghdad, British
forces spokesman Maj. Charlie
Burbridge said. Across Iraq,
official observances of Ramadan
were punctuated with violence.
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The third step is to work with a
counselor to create a risk-reduction
plan that gives students guidance
about how to protect themselves
from HIV exposure.
These plans can include the use
of condoms or reducing the num
ber of sexual partners.
“The whole point of that is the
client-centered counseling model,”
Przybyla said. “We are helping peo
ple to assess their own risk.”
Between 600 and 800 students
participate in this testing and coun
seling each year. In an attempt to
reach the rest of the UNC communi
ty, CHECS counselors hold free HIV
testing events three times a year.
These events, held in the Student
Recreation Center, offer free oral
tests which are open to students,
faculty, staff and the community.
“It is a way to go to students and
make it easier for them,” Przybyla
said. “Students said it was impor
tant to them.”
Students said they appreciate
that UNC offers testing and coun
seling free of charge.
“They provide support and dis
cussion on a very taboo topic,” said
sophomore Lindsey Dvorak.
In the past as many as 250
people were tested at the outreach
events. Some arrived alone, others
with friends.
Students can contact Counseling
and Wellness Services to set up test
ing appointments. On Dec. 1, World
AIDS Day, an outreach-based test
ing event will be held in the SRC.
Contact the University Editor
at udesk@unc.edu.
Division of
Iraq delayed
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -
Iraq’s feuding ethnic and sectar
ian groups moved ahead Monday
with forming a committee to con
sider amending the constitution
after their leaders agreed to delay
any division of the country into
autonomous states until 2008.
The deal was a victory for
Sunni Arabs, who had been fight
ing the federalism bill proposed
by Shiite cleric Abdel Aziz al-
Hakim, the leader of the United
Iraqi Alliance. They fear that if
not amended, it will splinter the
country and deny them a share
of Iraq’s oil.