AEGiS-WashBlade: Whitman-Walker Clinic, Us Helping Us on CDC 'hit list' for funding cuts

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Whitman-Walker Clinic, Us Helping Us on CDC 'hit list' for funding cuts

Washington Blade - August 1, 2003
Lou Chibbaro Jr.

The Whitman-Walker Clinic and Us Helping Us, two D.C. AIDS service groups that carry out government funded HIV prevention programs, are among 211 community-based organizations across the country that could lose funding from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention next year, the Associated Press reported this week. The AP said the names of groups that might lose CDC funding surfaced at an HIV prevention conference in Atlanta this week, in which CDC officials described plans to restrict awarding HIV prevention funds to groups that target mostly people who are already HIV positive. Whitman-Walker, Us Helping Us, and at least four other D.C. groups that carry out HIV prevention programs devote most of their efforts to targeting at-risk populations, such as gay and bisexual men and people of color, who have not yet been infected with HIV. CDC Director Julie Gerberding has said the latest CDC data on new HIV infections in the U.S. show that populations that groups such as Whitman-Walker and Us Helping Us target for prevention programs contracted the virus at rates considerably higher than other groups. Gerberding and critics of HIV prevention programs that use sexually suggestive outreach efforts targeting groups such as gay men say these programs appear to have failed. Dr. Robert Janssen, director of CDC's Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, said groups like Whitman-Walker and Us Helping Us can continue to receive CDC prevention funds if they change the focus of their programs.

"What we don't want to do is just hand out condoms and brochures," Janssen said. If the groups don't make changes, he said, they would likely lose their funds next May. The other D.C. groups in danger of losing CDC prevention fund, according to AP, are Sasha Bruce Youthwork, the National Organization of Concerned Black Men, the Family & Medical Counseling Services, and La Clinica Del Pueblo.

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