Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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San Francisco Examiner - October 2, 2007
Dena Levitz
What can we expect for this year's walk?
Right now, we're above 4,000 registered walkers, and we have over $500,000 raised so far. That's ahead of where we were last year, when we raised $600,000 total. ... The cross-section of people that tends to take part really runs the gamut, and that's one of the great things. We have a number of people that have walked every single year.
Where does the money go?
It goes to fund HIV/AIDS programs. Free testing and counseling services, our medical care, our behavioral health care, which includes counseling groups, case management.
What has been the biggest change to the event in the past decade?
Certainly involvement. Participation has dropped off a bit. Because of the advent of certain treatments, the crisis mentality is not quite there. We're a victim of our own success, you might say ... but it is still a very, very serious illness. We're seeing more and more people coming in with strains of the disease that don't have treatments.
D.C. has the most severe problem with AIDS in the nation. Official counts are that 1 in 20 adults are victims. Why is AIDS such an enormous problem in D.C.?
It's a real combination of factors. We're such a hotbed, partly because of our population. The majority of the city is African-American, and African-Americans have a much higher rate. We also have a large gay men's community, a large immigrant population. You put those together, and it's also more and more a disease of poverty.
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