Fewer District residents are being diagnosed with or dying from AIDS and HIV, city health officials said Wednesday.
New HIV cases dropped 2 percent in the District in 2010, and new AIDS cases decreased 32 percent over a four-year span beginning in 2006, government statistics showed.
Still, more than two people in the city were diagnosed with HIV every day in 2010 — a statistic that leaders say shows the problem is far from being defeated.
“This report is a picture of progress,” said Mayor Vincent Gray, adding later, “A lot of this [progress] is due to collaborative efforts … of community organizations across the city.”
Still, the District’s HIV infection rate remains above the 1 percent threshold that the World Health Organization defines as a “generalized epidemic.”
About 2.7 percent of District residents — 14,465 people — are HIV-positive, the city said. That number is up from 13,837 people the previous year, though the citywide rate is lower because of updated reporting technology and because D.C.’s overall population has increased.
Gray said “it’ll be a while” before the city is able to significantly reduce its infection rate. But he noted part of what’s keeping the rate at a consistently high rate is the fact that those infected are living longer.
Gregory Pappas, a senior deputy director in the Department of Health, said he believes the District will someday be able to eliminate cases where patients die of HIV-related causes.
“In D.C., we can get to zero deaths,” he said. “It’s going to take a while.”
Deaths of patients from HIV-related causes continued to fall, and in 2010, the city reported 66 such deaths, a decrease from 237 in 2006.
The number of children born with HIV has fallen from 14 infants in 2006 to zero in 2010, a point of pride for officials, who said no baby since 2009 has been born HIV-positive in the District.
“The report makes clear that we still have a tremendous amount of work to do, but with our data we can continue to effectively face the challenges of this deadly disease,” at-large Councilman David Catania, chairman of the council’s Health Committee, said in a statement.
Part of that, Gray said, could be linked to patients receiving quicker care, and that three of every four of the District’s HIV patients received treatment within three months of their initial diagnosis. That figure stood at 58 percent six years ago.SClBThe District is also changing its HIV treatment protocols and will begin offering treatment as soon as a patient is diagnosed, which researchers say yields greater success.
