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Washington D.C., Officials Urge Lawmakers To Block House Amendment That Would Impact Local Needle Exchange Programs

This week Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and other Washington, D.C., officials "were racing to persuade congressional leaders to erase a House amendment that would essentially reinstate" a ban on using the district"s tax dollars to fund needle exchange programs, the Washington Post reports. A House bill including an amendment addressing needle exchange approved last week, which gives the district its federal appropriation for fiscal year 2010, "would prohibit the city from providing money to any needle exchange program that operates within 1,000 feet of virtually any location where children gather," according to the Post. Norton said, "It essentially wipes out the program," adding that she is calling on other lawmakers to pay close attention to any similar language in the Senate"s version of the bill, which is still in committee. According to the Post, "If the Senate does not include a similar amendment in its version of the bill, members would iron out their differences in a conference committee after Congress returns from its August recess. That"s where [district] officials and AIDS activists hope to kill the amendment" (Fears, 7/31).

WHO, Wyeth Launch Trial In Africa To Test New River Blindness Drug

The WHO on Wednesday announced plans for a clinical trial to test a new drug that "could halve the treatment period for river blindness [or onchocerciasis], a disease that threatens 100 million people mostly in Africa," AFP/Dow Jones Newswires/CNN Money reports (7/1). "This is a devastating illness that has plagued 30 African countries for centuries, in particular the populations in the most remote areas "beyond the end of the road,"" Uche Amazigo, director of the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC), said (ANI/Thaindian.com, 7/1).