An estimated 10,000 people turned out at Boston's Esplanade Sunday for the city's 19th AIDS Walk & 5K Run, raising more than $1 million for HIV/AIDS prevention and services, said organizers. Prior to the walk, Mayor Thomas M. Menino called for a statewide needle-exchange program to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS among IV drug users. State Public Health Commissioner Christine C. Ferguson, comic Margaret Cho, and actor Scott Lowell from "Queer As Folk" also spoke to the crowd. Rebecca Haag, executive director of the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, said the most urgent concern is the estimated $6 million shortfall in the state budget for the HIV Drug Assistance Program. Walk organizers said they were pleased with the turnout, although it was but a fraction of the 35,000 people who participated in 1992.

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