Norton Praises D.C.'s Prompt Funding of Local Needle Exchange (1/02/08)
Norton Praises D.C.'s Prompt Funding of Local Needle Exchange Following Lifting of Congressional Ban
January 2, 2008
Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) hailed today's announcement by Mayor Adrian Fenty and Dr. Shannon Hader, Senior Deputy Director of the HIV/AIDS Administration of the D.C. Department of Health, to begin the New Year by funding a D.C. needle exchange program. Norton fought the congressional ban for 10 years and made its elimination a 2007 priority. She cast a vote on the House floor in the Committee of the Whole against an attempt to retain the ban in a battle that was a struggle. Norton praised PreventionWorks!, whose privately funded needle exchange program saved lives when the District was unable to do so. "The District's AIDS rate is artificially elevated and has become the highest in the nation because of the inexcusable ban on spending our own funds to save the lives and protect the health of our citizens," Norton said. "No congressional interference with this city has been more reckless, costly or senseless. Now we have a lot of catching up to do, and I am grateful to the city for this quicker start."
Norton, who has been a leader in Congress on HIV/AIDS work and funding for the District, dedicated 2007 to raising consciousness in four town meetings, for clergy, men, women, and teens. These meetings focused on the primary mode of transmission, unprotected and careless sex, and on the denial, homophobia and misinformation that spread the disease. Getting tested, as Norton herself has done, and safe sex were the themes of the town meetings, where residents were offered testing. Norton said that like other big cities, D.C.'s rate would probably still be high, but she said "surely we can bring D.C. out of the top of this line-up from highest to lowest: Washington D.C., Baltimore, Oakland, Boston, Nashville, New Orleans, Charlotte, and El Paso." She said that huge reductions in the rates of cities such as Boston and New York offer evidence of the beneficial effect of preventing HIV/AIDS through a well-run needle exchange.