Ring of Lights Boosts AIDS Awareness

District of Columbia officials plan to mark World AIDS Day by illuminating city hall with a ring of red-filtered lights and by hosting several events. City councilors David A. Catania and Kwame R. Brown have scheduled all-day testing, panels, and hearings Thursday at the John A. Wilson Building, Pennsylvania Avenue and 14th Street NW.

In June, the District reported that 3.2 percent of adult and adolescent residents there were HIV-positive in 2010, well above the World Health Organization threshold of 1 percent for a generalized epidemic. However, the report found a significant drop in AIDS deaths, and gains in early diagnoses and treatment, and free antiretroviral therapy uptake.

An estimated 20 percent of people with HIV in the United States are unaware they are infected. To help reach this population locally, the District has for a year offered free HIV testing at the Department of Motor Vehicles’ Penn Branch Office. It recently added a testing at a site where people seek government assistance, the Anacostia Services Center on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Southeast.

On Dec. 1, Calvary Health Care will offer HIV testing from a bus at the Wilson building from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. A public awareness fair will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the atrium.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.

TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!