Hometown: Raleigh
Profession: Non-Profit Development Associate
Q: What has North Carolina's AIDS Drug Assistance Program meant to you?
A: ADAP has meant that I’m able to work and that I was able to
finish school and stay healthy enough to maintain a normal and productive life.
I was diagnosed with HIV in 2006; I was a low-income student about to start
graduate school and did not have health insurance. At the time I did not need
medication, but they went ahead and enrolled me in ADAP. I was on it for about
three years and then in 2009, while in my last year of graduate school and
still without health insurance, the time came for me to begin taking
medication.
Because I was on ADAP, I was able to get my medication without any
delay or complications. A month after I began medication my viral load was
declared undetectable for the first time. Being able to go on medication
through ADAP enabled me to take my comprehensive exams and complete all my
final projects, graduating on time.
ADAP also allowed me to change medication
due to an allergic reaction I had. If I had been on a pharmaceutical patient
assistance program there could have been a delay in changing my medication because
I would have had to apply for another program through a different
pharmaceutical company and hope that they approved me to receive medications. Being
on ADAP allowed me to go on treatment when I needed to and to change treatment,
as I needed to.
When I came back to North Carolina for work after graduating and
moving to another state, there was a waiting list for ADAP. That was of great
concern for me because the job I had accepted didn’t cover health insurance. It
was a very scary time for me because while on the ADAP waiting list I was
reliant on a clinic supply for my medication. Thankfully I was a patient at a
large clinic and was able to receive medication for the month or two that I was
on the waiting list.
ADAP was once again a lifesaver. It allowed me to be a
productive citizen—to work and pay taxes and put a roof over my head and food
in my mouth. I don’t want to lose ADAP. Time and again it’s been there to help
pay for my medicine when I couldn’t have otherwise. Here I am speaking to you
today, and I’m undetectable, and I’m able to be a healthy and productive member
of society.
ADAP enables people to move out of poverty and into the working
class; it enables them to continue with life. ADAP is an economic builder—it
helps the economy because it propels the HIV positive segment of our population
out of lower socioeconomic levels; it gives them the ability to reach their
potential and to care for themselves and their families.
Interview by Blaire Benson
This is the first of a series of interviews highlighting the impact that the AIDS Drug Assistance Program has on the lives of people in North Carolina. If you would like to share your story, contact Claire at claire@ncaan.org.
To take action to save the AIDS Drug Assistance Program from proposed budget cuts, send an email to your legislators now.
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