Not a good place to live. From the Washington Post:
HIV/AIDS Rate in D.C. Hits 3%A bit more:
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.
That translates into 2,984 residents per every 100,000 over the age of 12 -- or 15,120 -- according to the 2008 epidemiology report by the District's HIV/AIDS office.
"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."
Black men, with an infection rate of nearly 7 percent, carry the weight of the disease.Yikes -- HIV/AIDS has been known about for thirty years and people are still taking risks...
In fact, it is a great place to live. No doubt, HIV is completely running amok here, as it is in Baltimore, NYC, and many cities in the South.
And let's be clear: Many people don't realize they are at risk. A recent CDC paper suggested that the largest proportion of persons living with undiagnosed HIV were ethnic minorities and heterosexual men.
So yeah, people here are still taking "risks", but all this means is that they doing what everyone else does but without awareness of their or their partners' HIV status -- and without the full programmatic support needed to curb the epidemic in the nation's capitol.