Donations will
keep D.C. free clinic open

After announcing that it may be forced to close due to the loss of more than $375,000 in federal HIV treatment funds, the Washington, D.C., Free Clinic now reports that nearly $135,000 in individual contributions will help keep the agency open--at least through the summer, The Washington Post reports. The clinic, the city's oldest low-cost health care center, was given just two weeks' notice concerning the nonrenewal this year of the federal HIV grant it had received for HIV care management and treatment for nearly a decade. Because the grant constituted nearly 30% of the clinic's annual operating budget, officials said the organization would likely have to close, perhaps as early as this month. But clinic development director Kara Mullen says individual contributions ranging from $10 to $50,000, as well as assistance from a pharmaceutical company and a nearby Unitarian church, will help keep the clinic open at least through the end of the summer, and possibly through the end of the year. The clinic serves about 1,450 adults and children in the D.C. area each year.