D.C. BACKSLIDING IN EFFORTS TO FIGHT AIDS, STUDY FINDS

For the first time in several years, the District is falling behind
in its efforts to combat AIDS, according to a report to be released Tuesday.

The advocacy group DC Appleseed Center for Law and Justice pointed to
a lack of leadership by former mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) at the end
of his term and said the city's grades declined in three other areas:
gathering and tracking data on the illness, managing grants to groups
that help people with the disease, and its needle exchange program.

The report called on Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) to use the bully
pulpit of the city's top elected official to restore momentum in the
fight against a disease that is at epidemic levels in the District.
At least 3 percent of Washington residents have HIV or AIDS, a
prevalence rate that is the highest for any city in the United States.

In its sixth "report card" on the city's response to the virus, the
group noted that this is the first time there has been such
backsliding since the group started tracking the District's HIV/AIDS
rate in 2005. In previous reports, the District had been making
steady and significant improvement in the AIDS fight, according to
the group's executive director, Walter Smith.

Although the city's report card was mostly A's and B's, the only way
for the city to win the battle on AIDS is for officials to make top
grades in all areas over a sustained period, Smith said. "So slippage
in key areas is, therefore, doubly troubling to us," he said.

Although Fenty said HIV/AIDS was his top health priority, the group
took Fenty to task because "the frequency and focus of the mayor's
involvement diminished over time," the report said. "We think that
leadership and public engagement must go deeper than appearing at
HIV/AIDS-themed events."

When the mayor does not make the issue a top priority, it trickles
down to other levels of government and community partners, Smith said.

An assistant to Fenty, an adviser for a Philadelphia-based accounting
and consulting firm among other jobs, did not respond to an e-mail or
telephone message.

The advocacy group urged Gray to take a visible and substantive role
in the fight against AIDS. Gray appointed a new 27-member commission
on HIV/AIDS two weeks ago and is scheduled to hold a news conference
Tuesday at the group's first meeting. Gray chairs the commission.

A spokesman for Gray said the mayor has made the disease his No. 1
health priority. The commission will focus on the best ways to reduce
barriers to treatment and develop policy recommendations for reducing
HIV-infection rates, among other issues.

Appleseed's Smith said the commission was a good step, "but the mayor
has to use it to make things happen."

Among the top priorities for Gray are ensuring that the District
strengthens HIV and sexual education within public schools and
charter schools; that the city moves forward on measuring the new
rate of infection; and that funding for needle-exchange services is maintained.

Last month, the leading provider of clean needles to drug addicts in
the District shut its doors. PreventionWorks had been distributing
free needles for more than 12 years, but delays in city funds, high
turnover of managers at the nonprofit and dwindling private donations
forced it to close. City officials said they plan to redirect money
originally intended for the group to two other providers.