DC is Already the HIV/AIDS Capital of the Nation. Do We Really Need to Top Another Category of Deaths?
November 27, 2007 by Abdul Kargbo
Great! More good news!! As it it’s not bad enough that homicide figures for the year thus far have surpassed the total figure for 2006, now we get this:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington, D.C., has the highest rate of AIDS in the United States, and more babies are born with the AIDS virus in Washington than in other U.S. cities, according to a report released on Monday.
People living in Washington also are not getting tested for HIV and show up with advanced infections that progress quickly to AIDS, the report by city health officials found.
The report found that Washington, with a population of around 600,000 people, has a rate of 128 AIDS cases per 100,000 people in 2006, compared with a national rate of 14 cases per 100,000. The city accounted for 9 percent of all pediatric AIDS cases in the United States during 2005.
Read the rest of the story here.
Despite such grim statistics, it seems some people can’t wait around for HIV/AIDS to finish Washingtonians off. They’ve revived a long-standing legal dispute surrounding DC’s gun ban in an attempt to lend a helping hand.
damn.. i didn’t know dc had the highest number of HIV infected patients. i’d have thought ny but hey, i was wrong.
i guess people are not getting the message. knowledge is only half the battle.
sa lone pikin,
Na tru gbaing!