DC's AIDS Epidemic
At-risk populations — DC has lots of poverty (double the nationwide average), blacks (five times the national percentage) and gays (around 12 percent) — plus the least competent big-city government in the US equals serious problems:
In Washington, D.C., about one in every 50 people have AIDS, and there is an unknown but even higher number with HIV.
D.C. also has the highest rate of new AIDS cases in the country—12 times the national average—and has more people living with AIDS than all but nine states.
By all accounts it's an epidemic, and the statistics rival a number of African countries. To make matters worse, the problem is growing even though the city has spent $500 million over the past eight years on medical care, HIV testing, counseling and other services.
"[The city] was never able to get its act together," said Kim Mills, the communications director for the Whitman-Walker Clinic, which specializes in HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention in the D.C. area. "They were not monitoring the epidemic; they were not distributing condoms. Really basic things just weren't happening."
...
[One] problem is that Washington D.C. is prohibited by Congress from spending federal tax dollars on needle exchange programs. In many states, dirty needles can be traded for clean ones on a one-for-one basis. This usually coincides with drug treatment programs, HIV testing and other health services.
"Forty percent of new AIDS cases can be traced back to a dirty needle," Levinson said. The district does have a small, privately funded needle exchange program, but Levinson said it doesn't have enough money to offer the complementary services that would make it more successful.
...
Compounding the epidemic is that the district's schools have poor sexual education programs, according to the D.C. Appleseed report, and the jails have sub-par HIV and substance abuse services.
The numbers aren't attributed (the people interviewed have a strong incentive to exaggerate them) and Washington D.C. proper is part of the metropolitan DC population.
But man — one in fifty with full-blown AIDS is a lot.
(via Dawn Summers)
From everything I have read and seen those numbers are actually rather correct. The percentage of people that are infected that don't know it is outrageous! It's almost like we are back in the late 80s-early 90s.
These numbers alone (inflated or not...and I personally believe they are not) is an argument enough for needle exchange and free testing and condoms on every street corner. I'm not exagerrating about that either. It should be like a yearly check up or something.
Posted by: Elyssa on April 18, 2006 4:49 PM | permalinkYeah, not offering clean needles is fucking retarded.
Posted by: Joe Grossberg on April 18, 2006 5:07 PM | permalink"But man — one in fifty with full-blown AIDS is a lot."
The upside is that, as time goes on, that number will only decline, regardless of what anyone does about the "problem."
I assume that is 1 in 50 of the 553,523 or so people who live in the District, and not of the 4.8 million in the Washington Metro area.
I really dislike how DC stats are always skewed some way because people don't compare apples to apples, and since our area goes across all sorts of arbitrary politcal boundaries...
(That's 4.8 million from the Wikipedia DC page. It's 5.14 million on the Wikipedia "top 25 metro areas of the US" page and 4.2 million on the Wikipedia "top 100 metro areas worldwide" not to mention the 7.6 million stated on the Wikipedia "Baltimore-Washingon Metropolitan Area" page)
Of course, anyone with AIDS is more that we need...
Posted by: Kearns on April 18, 2006 10:09 PM | permalinkI am certain they meant just DC. And, yes, it's very, very annoying having to explain to people outside the area that there's more to "DC" than just DC.
Posted by: Joe Grossberg on April 19, 2006 8:25 AM | permalinkNo more comments! Either someone has violated Godwin's Law, I'm tired of the discussion or, most likely, the ten-week window has closed. You can, however, contact me through email.