FYI: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Julie Gerberding told a national AIDS conference that the agency’s controversial new HIV prevention initiative will not eat up money set aside for community based groups working with people of color, as advocates and providers had feared. Earlier this year, the CDC announced plans to focus its HIV prevention dollars on testing campaigns and on projects that target people who are already HIV positive; traditional HIV prevention has centered on educating entire communities about the virus. The widespread negative reaction to that shift intensified when advocates learned that the initiative would encompass money Congress earmarks each year to directly fund community groups doing broad-based prevention work in communities of color. But in her Sept. 19 speech at the annual U.S. Conference on AIDS, Gerberding assured attendees that the CDC is “absolutely” committed to leaving those earmarked funds in place. Check out Kai Wright’s examination of the new initiative in the current issue of City Limits magazine. [9/30/03]