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PRESS RELEASE
HIV Progress in D.C. Accelerated by Federal Payments Norton Secures and Her Removal of the Needle Exchange Rider
Aug 21, 2020 - Press Release - WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that the significant progress reported in the District of Columbia’s 2019, HIV, STD, Hepatitis and TB Surveillance Report released yesterday, encourages her to continue her efforts in Congress that have been vital to D.C.’s success in combatting HIV/AIDS. No progress – only increases in HIV cases – was made until Norton got a deadly rider removed in 2007 that prohibited D.C. from spending its local funds on needle exchange programs, and she has kept the rider from being reimposed ever since, even though Democrats have been in the minority during some of those years. Equally important, Norton has secured millions of dollars annually, over and above other federal funding, in special federal payments for AIDS prevention and treatment in D.C., including $4 million in fiscal year 2020.
The report indicated that the two leading causes of the decrease in the spread of HIV in the District are the use of a daily prophylactic pill, Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), and the greater percentage of individuals with HIV with viral loads so low it cannot be passed to others. In addition, Norton has given priority to pressing for the over $2.4 billion for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program in the House-passed FY 2021 healthcare spending bill, which helps fund PrEP. She also pressed for the $90 million in the CARES Act to help provide COVID-19-related health services for Ryan White clients.
Norton said she will cite progress the District has made to help her to get Ryan White funds and millions of dollars in special federal payments annually to combat HIV/AIDS in the District, as well as to keep the deadly rider that prohibited D.C. from using its local funds for needle exchange from being reimposed.
“The progress in this year’s report shows the effectiveness of the programs the District has used to almost eliminate HIV cases attributable to injection drug use and to reduce the number of newly diagnosed HIV cases,” Norton said. “Particularly important has been the removal of a needle exchange rider, which had been in place for a decade, preventing D.C. from using its local funds on needle exchange programs, which I got removed in 2007. We cannot understate the effect of millions of dollars in annual special federal funding I have gotten for D.C. over the last decade in achieving the positive health outcomes shown in this year’s report. I intend to use D.C.’s progress to continue to get this unique funding.”
Key findings of the report include:
- The number of newly diagnosed HIV cases in the District was 282 in 2019, a 16% decrease from 335 in 2018; there has been a 79% decrease from the 1,374 cases in 2007.
- The number of newly diagnosed HIV cases attributable to injection drug use decreased from 150 cases in 2007, when the rider was removed, to two cases in 2019.
The report can be found here: https://dchealth.dc.gov/publication/hahsta-annual-epidemiology-surveillance-report-2020
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Source: Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC)
Media Contact
Sharon Eliza Nichols
DIrector of Communications
Sharon.E.Nichols@mail.house.gov
Call/text: 202-225-8143
"Reproduced with permission - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton"
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
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