HIV Hotline Forced to Crowdfund for Survival
Internet crowdfunding campaigns are generally undertaken by people who want to build a flame-shooting Burning Man art car or by quirky entrepreneurs who dream of opening a kitty cafe. They are generally not for established medical care services traditionally financed by Department of Health and Human Services agencies and the Centers for Disease Control.
But in Donald Trump’s America, that’s what it’s come to for the Clinician Consultation Center, a San Francisco service that provides cold, hard facts and emotional support to doctors, nurses, and pretty much anyone whose occupation brings them into risky contact with the transmission of HIV and hepatitis. The center’s Post-Exposure Prophylaxis Hotline (PEPline) is the only clinical advice center in the U.S. that provides free advice on workplace HIV questions.
But this year, the PEPline is experiencing such profound federal funding cuts that it’s been reduced to crowdfunding its own survival.
“We’ve been around for 25 years,” Brenda Goldhammer, the center’s program manager, says. “This is the first time we’ve entered a new administration where we feel pretty nervous.”
Read more: http://www.sfweekly.com/news/news-news/hiv-hotline-forced-to-crowdfund-for-survival/
