With escalating costs draining the funds of the Ryan White program for HIV/AIDS in Ohio, the life-supporting antiviral drugs, needed by the HIV patients, may become increasingly difficult to get in the state.

According to the statistics forwarded by Jay Carey, management analyst for Ohio's Ryan White program, 1,962 HIV/AIDS patients from all across the state received free drugs under the program in December 2005. The number of patients receiving free medication swelled to 4,384 by December 2009; and, ever since, has grown to over 5,000.

Apparently, it is the economy that has played a spoilsport in terms of the harder-to-get assistance from the program - while the funding from the state and the federal government has remained unchanged; it is the shrinking job market that has put a strain on the funds, because of the increase in the number of AIDS patients seeking help.

To qualify for the `free medication' benefit under the program, the HIV/AIDS patient should be earning at or below 500 percent of the national poverty level. And, as such, since there has been an increase in the number of jobless people, more and more `down-sized' patients ended turning to the program for assistance.

In addition, the rising drug costs also led to the using up of large chunks of the more of the program's funds.

Noting that "there are not enough resources, Carey said: "We are in an unfortunate situation largely due to the economy."