Treatment Clinic for HIV/AIDS Patients Opens in Foggy Bottom

By Katherine Lauria | Sep 29 2009 | Metro and Neighborhood |

A new HIV/AIDS clinic opened in Foggy Bottom on Thursday, providing another treatment destination for the more than 15,000 District residents with HIV or AIDS.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Blair Underwood Healthcare Center, located at 2141 K St. NW, offers free testing, treatment and counseling to patients. The clinic includes 15 rooms, four examination beds and five vans that travel around the city to offer HIV tests to 40 to 50 people a day. There will be one full-time doctor on staff and an on-site pharmacy for prescription medications.

Television and film actor Blair Underwood attended the clinic’s opening ceremony on Thursday. Underwood has lent his support to the center, hoping to use his celebrity to attract clients and promote awareness. Officials from the Obama administration, members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local AIDS activist Barbara Chinn were also present.

Chinn was honored at the ceremony for her years of work fighting the AIDS epidemic with the Whitman-Walker Clinic, which focuses on HIV care and hosts an annual walk in support of research and AIDS prevention.

An estimated 3 percent of D.C. residents have HIV or AIDS, including 7 percent of black men in the District, according to a report released by D.C. health officials in March. The CDC defines an HIV epidemic as “generalized and severe” when more than 1 percent of residents in a specific geographic area have the virus.

“Obviously, we’re thrilled that this clinic is opening up,” said Erica Slates (SFS ’10), vice president for on-campus activism for H*yas for Choice. “The rate of HIV/AIDS infection in D.C. is unacceptably high, and we’re glad that more organizations recognize this problem and are helping to combat it.”

In the past, H*yas for Choice has used its resources to bring an HIV/AIDS testing van to campus, and Slates said the organization hopes that more students will be safe, educated and aware because of this new clinic.

Student Health Services charges a fee for its on-campus HIV testing. James Marsh, director of the Student Health Center, said the university would be willing to refer people to the Blair Underwood Healthcare Center and that the clinic offers many kinds of support and treatment that Student Health Services does not offer.

According to Marsh, Student Health Services refers any AIDS patients to the Center for Infectious Diseases at Georgetown University Hospital.

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