Washington, D.C. Convenes Meeting On AIDS

Washington, D.C., launched a three-day HIV/AIDS conference on Thursday in an attempt by health officials to reach out to the community and to identify groups under-served in the fight against AIDS. Bringing together health officials, activists and educators, the conference is meant to provide the public access to experts and to allow officials and experts to involve the entire community. More than 59 workshops and discussions are planned. Today's scheduled speaker is former Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders. The conference is free and open to the public.

"We felt that bringing together all these groups would be a good way to take on this problem," said Ronald E. Lewis, senior deputy director for health promotion and head of the HIV/AIDS Administration. "We've had people approach us in the past and tell us that they wanted to talk about what they had learned over the years." In addition, according to Lewis, the economic slowdown may have an impact on money available for HIV/AIDS administration and "we are preparing the community," said Lewis.

The city has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the United States, estimated to be between 15,000 and 18,000 infections. The AIDS case rate for the District at the end of 2000 was 153 per 100,000 people, compared with 14.4 per 100,000 for the United States.

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