* Tribune…

With cuts to HIV and AIDS programs looming from President Donald Trump’s administration, advocates are pressing Illinois lawmakers to fill a growing void or face a situation for which they say the state is unprepared.

It’s a “life or death situation,” Timothy Jackson, senior director of policy and advocacy at AIDS Foundation Chicago, said of those living with HIV or AIDS and the possibility of losing access to healthcare and medication.

“If you are a person living with HIV and you cannot secure your medications, it is going to progress to an AIDS diagnosis,” said Jackson, who was diagnosed with HIV 17 years ago. “And people are going to die.”

But with a tight state budget and many lawmakers reluctant to commit to new spending, advocates like Jackson realize it’s an uphill battle. Still, groups like AIDS Foundation Chicago are calling for a $6.5 million increase in the state’s HIV “lump sum” — a collection of grants and programs dedicated to HIV and AIDS testing, treatment, education and more — to minimize damage from federal funding cuts. The HIV lump sum of $25.56 million has not been increased since the 2021 budget. […]

“We know that when folks don’t get tested, it decreases the opportunity for them to know their status, which again increases the risk of transmission in the community,” [Dr. Travis Gayles, chief executive director of Howard Brown Health] said. “You can start to see how the funding cuts, and again, even keeping funding flat, create a situation where we might see a significant increase in new cases, because we just simply don’t have the tools to be able to respond in a proactive manner.”

$25.56 million at the beginning of Fiscal Year 2021 is $32.85 million in today’s dollars. So, the requested $6.5 million increase would still leave the program almost a million dollars short of where it was.