Pediatric AIDS/HIV Care Open House

Pediatric AIDS/HIV Care will mark February 7th, National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, by holding an open house to honor supporters of families with HIV/AIDS. For more information visit the Pediatric AIDS/HIV Care Website

Town Hall Meeting on HIV/AIDS

Us Helping Us and Transgender Health Empowerment co-sponsored a town hall meeting on HIV/AIDS that was held on January 15th and focused on new strategies to fight HIV in DC. Pictures from the event our available on The Center Flickr Photo Stream.

Panelists included City Council Member Jim Graham, Acting Director of the Office of HIV/AIDS Policy Department of Health and Human Services Christopher Bates, Director of the HIV/AIDS Administration Dr. Shannon Hader, and the DC HIV Community Planning Group Community Co-Chair A. Toni Young.

Much of the discussion focused around the new report on HIV/AIDS in DC released by the HIV/AIDS Administration. The report showed the District’s rate for newly reported AIDS cases is higher than rates in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, Detroit, or Chicago. 1 in 20 people in the District is living with HIV/AIDS.

Joey DiGuglielmo from the Washington Blade writes: "LAST WEEK’S AIDS town hall meeting was a sobering, eye-opening experience. It raised a bounty of murky, dire issues and offered no easy answers."

>> Continue reading Joey's article, A City in Crisis

>> The Facts: Men who Have Sex with Men and HIV in DC

Team Food and Friends Kick-Off Party at Nellies

You're invited to join Food & Friends for the 2008 TEAM Food & Friends Kick-Off Party. You will not want to miss this evening of hors d' oeuvres, cocktails, catching up with old friends and the chance to meet your future teammates. If you register for this year's ride at the party, you'll receive $20 off your registration fee.

continue reading this article at the DC Center Blog

Town Hall Meeting on HIV/AIDS in the District

Transgender Health Empowerment, Inc, Us Helping Us, and other local organizations are hosting a town hall meeting January 15 to discuss new strategies to fight HIV in DC.

continue reading this article at the new DC Center Blog

Washington, D.C. To Invest $650,000 in Needle-Exchange Programs

From Kaiser Daily: Washington, D.C. plans to invest $650,000 in needle-exchange programs to help prevent the spread of HIV among injection drug users in the city, officials announced Wednesday, the Washington Post reports (Nakamura, Washington Post, 1/3). The announcement comes after President Bush last week signed a $555 billion fiscal year 2008 omnibus spending bill (HR 2764) that effectively lifts a ban on city funding for needle-exchange programs in the district. Since 1999, the district has been the only U.S. city barred by federal law from using local funds for needle-exchange programs. A report released in November by district health officials found that injection drug use was the second most common cause of HIV transmission in the city (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 1/2).

"This program goes to best practices to combat one of our greatest health problems," district Mayor Adrian Fenty said at a news conference at the headquarters of PreventionWorks!, which operates the district's only needle-exchange program. PreventionWorks! will receive a $300,000 city grant, and the remaining $350,000 will go toward creating new needle-exchange programs, Fenty said. Ken Vail of PreventionWorks! said that the organization serves about 2,000 people at 12 locations in the city and that it exchanged 200,000 needles last year.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) in a statement said, "The district's AIDS rate is artificially elevated" because of the former funding ban, adding, "Now we have a lot of catching up to do." Council member David Catania, chair of the Committee on Health, said the public investment will be cost-effective in the long term if the exchange programs are successful. "The cost of infection is immeasurably higher [then needle-exchange programs] in terms of dollars and lives," he added. Shannon Hader, head of the district's HIV/AIDS Administration, said she expects the city to establish a variety of new needle-exchange programs, such as mobile clinics, outreach initiatives and fixed-site programs. Fenty said everyone should "be concerned" about HIV/AIDS when asked how he would respond to residents who might object to having needle-exchange programs in their neighborhoods (Washington Post, 1/3). "HIV and AIDS are such well-known public health problems in the District of Columbia that people understand we have to have programs and services in the neighborhoods," he added (AP/International Herald Tribune, 1/3).

Bush Signs Spending Bill: Lifts DC Needle Exchange Ban

From Kaiser Daily: President Bush last week signed a $555 billion fiscal year 2008 omnibus spending bill (HR 2764) that effectively lifts a ban on city funding for needle-exchange programs in Washington, D.C., the New York Times reports. Since 1999, the district has been the only U.S. city barred by federal law from using local funds for needle-exchange programs. A report released last month by district health officials found that injection drug use was the second most common cause of HIV transmission in the city (Urbina, New York Times, 12/27/07).

Mayor Adrian Fenty in a recent statement said the city plans to include needle exchanges in a larger program to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS. About $1 million in city funds will be allocated for needle-exchange programs in 2008. District City Council member Jim Graham said a city-funded needle-exchange program will have a significant impact on the city's high rate of HIV/AIDS. He added, "This program will save lives" (Manning, AP/Google.com, 12/27/07).

Rep. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.), chair of the House Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, said, "For too long, Congress has unfairly imposed on the citizens of D.C. by trying out their social experiments there." He added, "The ban on needle exchanges was one of the most egregious of these impositions, especially because the consensus is clear that these programs save lives" (New York Times, 12/27/07).