D.C. REPORT CARD ON AIDS SHOWS SOME IMPROVEMENT

The District has made strides in combating AIDS by increasing the
number of tests, funding needle exchange programs and producing
detailed data on the number of people who have the disease, a new report says.

Despite those steps, the District still has the worst HIV and AIDS
rate in the nation, according to the report released Wednesday by the
D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.

In its fifth "Report Card" on the city's response to the virus, D.C.
Appleseed gave the District high marks for being one of three cities
that administer the most HIV tests, for coordinating government
agencies responding to the epidemic and for strengthening the team in
the HIV/AIDS Administration (HAA), which gathers data on the illness.

The government also received above-average grades for leadership,
managing grants to groups that help people with the illness, and
monitoring the effectiveness of those programs.

But the report took Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) to task for failing to
give the disease more visibility. "While Mayor Fenty and his
administration deserve recognition for the continued support of . . .
numerous HAA initiatives, his public appearances and statements about
the epidemic have fallen short of his enthusiasm for action inside
the government," it said.

Appleseed officials said the city could do more.

"There is no question that the D.C. government is doing a lot right
now to address this epidemic," said executive director Walter Smith.
"At the same time, we know what the numbers are, and we are trying to
offer fair grades of the city's performance measured against what
more could and should be done."

The city cannot regress to the poor leadership and frequent firings
of directors that created a revolving door in the top office at HAA,
the report said. The District's AIDS epidemic "is a tragic outgrowth
of the failures of the private and public community leadership to
address the epidemic effectively, for about 20 years."

Moving forward, HAA should assess whether the improvements are
reducing the spread of the virus, it said. A report in March said at
least 3 percent of District residents have HIV or AIDS, but it did
not provide the number of new infections, which is key to determining
whether the city is making progress.

Overall, the report card was an improvement from the previous four.
In the first, the city racked up mostly B and C grades, along with
two Ds for substance abuse treatment and condom distribution. Those
grades improved to B in the current report. HIV testing in general
and among jail inmates received grades of A.

"This is a very solid report that accurately reflects the evolution
of the city's ability to respond to the epidemic," said D.C. Council
member David A. Catania (I-At Large), chairman of the health
committee. "I don't want to suggest that we're at nirvana in terms of
our response. We are not. But . . . these grades are an enormous turnaround."

The report praised Fenty's selection of HAA Director Shannon Hader,
who is highly regarded by city officials and AIDS activists.

The D.C. schools received the report's lowest grade, a C-plus, for
failing to implement a comprehensive HIV/AIDS curriculum, including
training teachers and working with community groups, four years after
a program was proposed.

"On numerous occasions, solid commitments to move forward with health
standards and a health curriculum were not followed by action," the
report said.