Robb Reichard, Executive Director of AIDS Fund Philly, discussed this year’s AIDSWalk Philly, the non-profit’s major fundraising event each year. Robb described the work of AIDS Fund Philly, providing emergency financial assistance to people living with HIV disease and organizations providing HIV services in the Greater Philadelphia region, while providing education and increasing public awareness of HIV/AIDS issues. AIDS FUND awards micro-grants through partner agencies, emergency funds for medical equipment, rent, food or transportation to help patients stay in treatment. He discussed the importance of staying in treatment, patients with zero detectible disease cannot transmit it to another. We discussed barriers to receiving treatment or PREP, the prevention medication, from lack of insurance and primary care, to fear of revealing private information to parents or partners, and often through the failure of medical caregivers to ask if it is needed. Robb notes that Philadelphia’s transmission rate, while declining, is still above other cities, possibly because it draws young people from the suburbs and due to communities who are not getting the information through cultural or language barriers. AIDSFUNDPHILLY.org
Robb Reichard, Executive Director of AIDS Fund Philly 10/11/20