HIV/AIDS rate hits 3 percent in D.C.
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
March 17, 2009
Three percent of all D.C. residents, or about 18,000 people, are known to be infected with HIV or AIDS, according to a report released Monday by the D.C. Department of Health. It is the highest such rate in the nation, officials said.
The report confirms that the District’s HIV problem is of epidemic proportion, as more than 1 percent of the population is infected. The disease is most prevalent among black men, whose infection rate more than doubles that of Hispanic males. It is most common in 40- to 49-year-olds, and it is found in every Washington neighborhood.
The Fenty administration has taken steps to combat the epidemic, DOH Director Pierre Vigilance wrote in the report, which updates HIV and AIDS rates as of 2008.
Publicly supported testing for the virus was increased by 70 percent between 2007 and 2008, Vigilance wrote, the number of clean needles distributed to drug addicts doubled, and 50 percent more people received free HIV medications.
