Shocking statistic, HIV rates in D.C. higher than in West Africa.
HIV/AIDS Rate in D.C. Hits 3%
Considered a ‘Severe’ Epidemic, Every Mode of Transmission Is Increasing, City Study Finds
By Jose Antonio Vargas and Darryl Fears, Washington Post Staff Writers
At least 3 percent of District residents have HIV or AIDS, a total that far surpasses the 1 percent threshold that constitutes a "generalized and severe" epidemic, according to a report scheduled to be released by health officials tomorrow…
"Our rates are higher than West Africa," said Shannon L. Hader, director of the District’s HIV/AIDS Administration, who once led the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s work in Zimbabwe. "They’re on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya."…
So urgent is the concern that the HIV/AIDS Administration took the relatively rare step of couching the city’s infections in a percentage, harkening to 1992, when San Francisco, around the height of its epidemic, announced that 4 percent of its population was HIV positive. But the report also cautions that "we know that the true number of residents currently infected and living with HIV is certainly higher."…. Almost 1 in 10 residents between the ages of 40 and 49 has the virus.
The report notes that "this growing population will have significant implications on the District’s health care system" as residents face chronic medical problems associated with aging and fighting a disease that compromises the immune system.
[For comparison, the HIV infection rate estimates (2007) for the United States was 0.6%, Canada, 0.4%, Uganda 5.4% and South Africa, 18%. For a map of HIV infection rates per country, click here. ]
