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GREENSBORO — Stockpiles of AIDS drugs will be smaller in 2009-10 as a result of state budget cuts, but health officials say the cuts shouldn’t affect patients.

A $3 million cut to the program in the 2009-2010 budget of the state Department of Public Health means that the usual six-month supply of AIDS drugs will be cut.

A month’s worth of drugs will remain stockpiled instead.

The drugs help those with HIV/AIDS who cannot afford treatment and who meet eligibility requirements. They are paid for by the state and distributed to patients by mail or at hospitals and health care facilities through the North Carolina AIDS Drug Assistance Program.

The cut shouldn’t affect patients who need the drugs, said Addison Ore, director of the Triad Health Project, which advocates for the roughly 1,600 people with HIV/AIDS in the county. “The HIV/AIDS drug assistance program is really solid,” Ore said.

Dr. Jeffrey Engle, the state health director, agreed.

“Why you want a six-month reserve is in case of emergencies,” Engle said, “or in a reduction in the supply chain.”

But more manufacturers now make drugs for AIDS patients, Engle said, than when state health workers first strived for a six-month supply.

The drugs also include those that treat other conditions that AIDS patients may have such as hypertension or depression.

“The other thing about AIDS drugs now is that there are so many of them that a clinician may be able to substitute one for another,” Engle said.

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com