Health News
2006-02-09
D.C.’s HIV
caseload is 10 times national average
Large gay and
African-American populations play a role in D.C.'s
high HIV rate
T
The HIV caseload
in Washington, D.C., is 10 times the national average,
with 5% of district residents infected with HIV and 2%
having been diagnosed with AIDS, National Public Radio
reports. Cornelius Baker, former executive director of
D.C.’s Whitman-Walker Clinic, says several
factors are leading to the high HIV level in the district,
including its large population
of African-Americans, a group hit hard by HIV
across the country. The district also has a large gay
population, another group disproportionately
affected by the disease, says Baker, adding that
a poor health care infrastructure and high rates of
drug addiction also are fueling the D.C. epidemic.
Marsha Martin,
who was named senior deputy director of the
district’s HIV/AIDS Administration in September
2005, is working to curb HIV’s spread in D.C.
But she says the agency’s efforts are hampered by a
drop in public and private funding as HIV has fallen
“off the radar screen” in the district.
She says that D.C. doesn’t currently have an HIV
public awareness campaign but that a task force headed
by the mayor’s office is currently being
assembled to help launch HIV outreach efforts in the
city.
Martin also says
she would like to make condoms available in all public
places that serve alcohol, expand the city’s
needle-exchange program, require HIV antibody testing
for all prisoners in the city, and make HIV antibody
testing more widely available through doctors' offices and
hospital emergency rooms. (Advocate.com)
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