Over one hundred people stood on Wednesday evening in a well appointed banquet room of a congressional office building on Capitol Hill to honor those lawmakers, public health officials and community advocates who played a major role in lifting the local funding ban on syringe exchange programs in the Nation's Capitol. The moment was a rare opportunity to celebrate a legal victory for HIV and hepatitis C prevention here in Washington, DC.

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Representative Jose Serrano (D-NY), along with Dr. Shannon Hader, Director of DC Government's HIV/AIDS Administration, gave remarks at the event and were among eight honorees to receive an award. Rep. Serrano, noting President Bush's inclusion of the DC ban in his fiscal year 2009 budget to Congress, stressed that attempts to resurrect the ban will be dead on arrival under his watch. Rep. Serrano also gave a shout out for lifting the federal funding ban on syringe exchange. This celebratory event was hosted by a diverse coalition of groups including the Drug Policy Alliance, AIDS Action, amFAR, Harm Reduction Coalition and the Human Rights Campaign.

The lifting of the ban in the Nation's Capital last December closed an arduous chapter for this city. During the nine year period when the local funding ban was in place, the city's only syringe exchange program, PreventionWorks!, relied solely on the generosity of volunteers and the goodwill of private donors, all the while working tirelessly to lower blood-borne infection rates amongst participants in the program.

For the first time since 1998, the District of Columbia Government has begun funding syringe exchange with $650,000 of its own locally raised public funds. This will provide a huge, sorely needed boost to existing services in the city! And this funding could not have come at a more critical time. Washington, DC government recently determined that the District has the highest HIV/AIDS infection rate in the entire nation, and nearly 21% of HIV infections in the city are directly tied to injection drug use.

Photos: (top) William McColl, Political Director with AIDS Action presents an award to Mayor Adrian Fenty (accepted by Dr. Shannon Hader); (bottom) Del. Norton gives a thumbs up as Rep. Serrano observes.