District To Offer Condoms For Free
Dispensers in Offices Aimed at Rise in AIDS
By Avram Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 2, 2003; Page B01
District health officials, who every day confront the nation's highest incidence of AIDS, will soon install plain white condom dispensers in select government offices and begin distributing the contraceptives for free.
The goal is to place more than 50 dispensers in offices frequented by the public, including the D.C. Housing Authority and the departments of human services, motor vehicles and public works, among others.
"They're going to be as common as water fountains," Ivan O. Torres, interim director of the city's HIV/AIDS Administration, said of the dispensers. "The mayor is committed to this. . . . This is no longer something to be ashamed of. It affects all of us."
City officials, who announced the measure on World AIDS Day yesterday, said they know of no other city or state that has distributed prophylactics so broadly from within government buildings.
The condoms are intended for the public and not for city workers, Torres said. They will not be displayed prominently in lobbies but they will be readily available.
In the next 12 months, the administration plans to pass out about 550,000 male condoms, 45,000 latex dental dams and about 30,000 female condoms in a variety of venues, including the public school system, which gives out 50,000 condoms a year. Male condoms cost the city less than a nickel apiece, and female condoms cost several dollars each.
Beauty salons, barbershops and nightclubs in the District hand out government-provided condoms, and Torres said their role will be stepped up as well. In recent tests of free dispensers in restrooms at District nightclubs Dream and Zanzibar and Georgene's restaurant and bar, male condoms were in demand, officials said. At Dream, about 900 condoms were dispensed over a recent two-day period, he said.
The distribution plan was greeted with enthusiasm yesterday by D.C. Council members but dismissed by others who questioned the logic behind it.
"I'm not aware of any evidence that that sort of activity has a positive effect," said Robert E. Rector, a family-issues researcher at the conservative Heritage Foundation. "The number-one determinant of whether a person will catch a sexually transmitted disease is the number of lifetime sexual partners. We seem to go out of our way as a government and a nation to avoid telling people that, but we hand out a lot of free condoms."
Tom Coburn, a physician, co-chairman of a presidential AIDS panel and former Oklahoma congressman, called condom distribution misguided because, he said, condoms fail 20 percent of the time.
"We used to think condoms were fairly effective," he said. "If used perfectly, they are probably 94 or 95 percent effective, but we're human, and we don't use them perfectly. . . . The city would be much better off spending its money getting people tested, treated and counseled not to give the virus to others."
Torres acknowledged that abstinence is the most effective preventive measure. "We preach that, but we have to deal with reality as public health professionals and can't deal with ideological platitudes," he said. "Some people do not choose abstinence."
D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), former executive director of Whitman-Walker Clinic, the region's largest private HIV/AIDS agency, praised the plan.
"What's at stake is so great, and it is 2003," he said. "It's time we really move as aggressively as funds will allow."
Sandy Allen (D-Ward 8), chairman of the council's human services committee, said she was not aware of the plan but nevertheless gave it cautious approval.
"We've got a lot of people dying in this town," she said. "We have to err on the side of safety."
In two decades, the AIDS epidemic has claimed more than 12,000 lives in the Washington region, which includes 20 counties in Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia. About 13,000 people in the region have AIDS, including 8,000 District residents, Torres said.
Exact numbers are not available, but officials estimate that as many as 14,000 other District residents are infected with HIV, which causes AIDS, and most are unaware that they have the virus.
The latest statistics indicate that the District's AIDS rate is 132 cases per 100,000 residents, with a disproportionate number of cases in the black community, Torres said. Almost 80 percent of new AIDS cases are among black residents, he said.
Since 1999, beauty salons have distributed condoms in containers resembling makeup compacts. The number of participating salons has reached 60, and barbershops are the next frontier in the campaign.
Clarence Brace, who has run a five-chair barbershop on Minnesota Avenue SE since 1968, said he is willing to help as long as the city gives him the condoms for free.
"You hear about HIV all the time -- almost every day," he said.
Graham said reaching people through hair stylists is sensible.
"The barber or hairdresser is someone people feel easy with," he said.
"They see them regularly, they feel good about seeing them, they talk about everything. It's a very good point of access."
Dispensers in Offices Aimed at Rise in AIDS
By Avram Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 2, 2003; Page B01
District health officials, who every day confront the nation's highest incidence of AIDS, will soon install plain white condom dispensers in select government offices and begin distributing the contraceptives for free.
The goal is to place more than 50 dispensers in offices frequented by the public, including the D.C. Housing Authority and the departments of human services, motor vehicles and public works, among others.
"They're going to be as common as water fountains," Ivan O. Torres, interim director of the city's HIV/AIDS Administration, said of the dispensers. "The mayor is committed to this. . . . This is no longer something to be ashamed of. It affects all of us."
City officials, who announced the measure on World AIDS Day yesterday, said they know of no other city or state that has distributed prophylactics so broadly from within government buildings.
The condoms are intended for the public and not for city workers, Torres said. They will not be displayed prominently in lobbies but they will be readily available.
In the next 12 months, the administration plans to pass out about 550,000 male condoms, 45,000 latex dental dams and about 30,000 female condoms in a variety of venues, including the public school system, which gives out 50,000 condoms a year. Male condoms cost the city less than a nickel apiece, and female condoms cost several dollars each.
Beauty salons, barbershops and nightclubs in the District hand out government-provided condoms, and Torres said their role will be stepped up as well. In recent tests of free dispensers in restrooms at District nightclubs Dream and Zanzibar and Georgene's restaurant and bar, male condoms were in demand, officials said. At Dream, about 900 condoms were dispensed over a recent two-day period, he said.
The distribution plan was greeted with enthusiasm yesterday by D.C. Council members but dismissed by others who questioned the logic behind it.
"I'm not aware of any evidence that that sort of activity has a positive effect," said Robert E. Rector, a family-issues researcher at the conservative Heritage Foundation. "The number-one determinant of whether a person will catch a sexually transmitted disease is the number of lifetime sexual partners. We seem to go out of our way as a government and a nation to avoid telling people that, but we hand out a lot of free condoms."
Tom Coburn, a physician, co-chairman of a presidential AIDS panel and former Oklahoma congressman, called condom distribution misguided because, he said, condoms fail 20 percent of the time.
"We used to think condoms were fairly effective," he said. "If used perfectly, they are probably 94 or 95 percent effective, but we're human, and we don't use them perfectly. . . . The city would be much better off spending its money getting people tested, treated and counseled not to give the virus to others."
Torres acknowledged that abstinence is the most effective preventive measure. "We preach that, but we have to deal with reality as public health professionals and can't deal with ideological platitudes," he said. "Some people do not choose abstinence."
D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), former executive director of Whitman-Walker Clinic, the region's largest private HIV/AIDS agency, praised the plan.
"What's at stake is so great, and it is 2003," he said. "It's time we really move as aggressively as funds will allow."
Sandy Allen (D-Ward 8), chairman of the council's human services committee, said she was not aware of the plan but nevertheless gave it cautious approval.
"We've got a lot of people dying in this town," she said. "We have to err on the side of safety."
In two decades, the AIDS epidemic has claimed more than 12,000 lives in the Washington region, which includes 20 counties in Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia. About 13,000 people in the region have AIDS, including 8,000 District residents, Torres said.
Exact numbers are not available, but officials estimate that as many as 14,000 other District residents are infected with HIV, which causes AIDS, and most are unaware that they have the virus.
The latest statistics indicate that the District's AIDS rate is 132 cases per 100,000 residents, with a disproportionate number of cases in the black community, Torres said. Almost 80 percent of new AIDS cases are among black residents, he said.
Since 1999, beauty salons have distributed condoms in containers resembling makeup compacts. The number of participating salons has reached 60, and barbershops are the next frontier in the campaign.
Clarence Brace, who has run a five-chair barbershop on Minnesota Avenue SE since 1968, said he is willing to help as long as the city gives him the condoms for free.
"You hear about HIV all the time -- almost every day," he said.
Graham said reaching people through hair stylists is sensible.
"The barber or hairdresser is someone people feel easy with," he said.
"They see them regularly, they feel good about seeing them, they talk about everything. It's a very good point of access."
