Pubdate: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 Source: Washington Post (DC) Page: A34 Copyright: 2007 The Washington Post Company Contact: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491 Cited: Prevention Works! http://www.preventionworksdc.org Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange) DONE DEAL The District Can Finally Use Its Own Money for Needle-Exchange Programs. FOR NEARLY 10 years, Congress prevented the District of Columbia from using its own money to fund needle-exchange programs, interventions that greatly reduce the risk for intravenous drug users of contracting or spreading HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The obstruction ended with passage this week of the omnibus budget bill. The ban had been in place since 1998, when Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) attached a rider to the District's budget that prevented the District from spending even its own funds to save lives. The provision survived every attempt to remove it. But with Democrats now in charge, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and Rep. Jose E. Serrano (D-N.Y.) succeeded in stripping the language from legislation. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty promises that he will waste no time in taking advantage of the opportunity once President Bush signs the budget bill. Prevention Works!, which is the city's sole needle-exchange program and has struggled to raise private funds, will get an immediate infusion of cash. And a request for proposals will be issued to local health-care, substance-abuse and HIV-AIDS agencies to create more programs that will reach out to intravenous drug users and get them into treatment. That it took this long is a travesty. HIV-AIDS is ravaging this city. A recent HIV-AIDS epidemiology report issued by the District showed that intravenous drug use was the third most common mode of transmission of the virus. All told, the District has 128.4 AIDS cases per 100,000 people, higher than the rates in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and every other American city. With its new authority, the District has another weapon in its uphill battle against this disease with no cure. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake