HELENA -- In commemoration of World AIDS Day, Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger on Friday announced an effort to spend more than $500,000 in state and private dollars the next three years to pay for AIDS medicines for sick Montanans who currently receive no help.

"Our values demand that we do not judge them, but that we help them,'' Bohlinger said of the nearly 440 Montanans living with AIDS and roughly 150 more who have the disease, but do not know it.

HIV/AIDS is a virus, first identified 25 years ago this year, that attacks the human immune system, making sufferers susceptible to other diseases.

Some $220,000 of the total will come from the Flowers Heritage Foundation, a California group started by pharmacist Sylester Flowers, who began his career by opening pharmacies in poorer neighborhoods.

That money is for one year and will buy AIDS medicines for the 22 Montanans currently on a waiting list to receive help paying for their medications, said Eric Flowers, son of the Foundation's founder. Flowers was in Helena Friday to announce the grant.

The Foundation announced this fall it would begin paying for AIDS medications for the 300 people nationwide who receive no help. Montana was the first state to apply for the private money.

"Our mission is to serve the underserved and take care of the most fragile among us,'' Flowers said.

Tom Loker, a member of the Flowers Heritage Foundation board, said it's important for people with HIV/AIDS to have open access to medicine. For one thing, newer drugs can keep the disease in check, allowing patients to live longer, healthier lives. But AIDS medicines are also important for public health, too, he said. HIV is a rapidly-mutating virus. People who don't have enough money to pay for all their AIDS drugs may try to ration them, allowing the HIV virus to "outsmart'' the drugs, which renders medicine less effective.

"This is a public health matter,'' he said.

The other $300,000 is included in Gov. Brian Schweitzer's proposed two-year budget for the year beginning in July of 2007. It includes $150,000 for each year.

AIDS medications cost, on average, $750 a month, Flowers said.

Montana, like all other states, gets money from the federal government to pay for all AIDS medications of people living below 330 percent of the federal poverty line, said Judy Nielsen, the HIV program coordinator at Montana's Department of Public Health and Human Services. About two-thirds of the 440 Montanans living with HIV/AIDS qualify for the help. The state also provides some money, about $42,000 a year.

But those dollars don't go far enough to cover every Montanan who qualifies for federal AIDS medication help, she said.

The Flowers Heritage Foundation money will cover the 22 people on Montana's waiting list immediately, Neilsen said, and the extra state money -- should it survive the 2007 Legislature -- should cover those people after the one-year Flowers grant expires.

All Montanans with HIV/AIDS get free counseling from the state, Nielsen said, so public health officials can help them deal with their illness and monitor the spread of HIV/AIDS in the state.

Nielsen said the people who do not qualify for the free AIDS medication either have private health insurance to cover it or get free medicine from drug manufacturers.

"We strive to have no one without help,'' she said.

Bohlinger also announced another initiative to beef up chemical dependency treatment around the state. Methamphetamine, particularly meth users who inject the drug into their veins, is causing a quicker spread of HIV/AIDS. Better drug treatment could prevent new cases of HIV/AIDS.

"One new transmission is one too many,'' Bohlinger said.

Kathy Hall, a physician's assistant at the public Deering Clinic in Billings, was also at the announcement. She said she began seeing HIV/AIDS patients 12 years ago. Initially, the clinic had 13 clients; today they treat close to 100.

While the majority of their clients are men who have sex with men, the profile of AIDS in Montana is not predictable, Hall said. Many clients are people who got the disease from heterosexual sex or using drugs intravenously.

One of her earliest clients was a man who came to the clinic in the late stages of the disease, so sick he couldn't walk or get on the examining table. He started on AIDS medications that day, Hall said. Within weeks, the man's health began returning.

Later, the man told Hall he "could feel the angel of death on his shoulder. She's not there anymore.''