March 23, 2009

New HIV Statistics Might Create Unnecessary Alarm in DC

Washington, DC, health officials acknowledge that while a recent report showing that 3 percent of residents are HIV positive is troubling, the data do not suggest that the city’s HIV epidemic is worsening, The Washington Post reports.

According to the article, that same report showed that new AIDS diagnoses and AIDS-related deaths are declining in the city and that the growing HIV prevalence is largely due to advances in antiretroviral treatment, which have kept HIV-positive people alive longer. Rand L. Stoneburner, a former New York City health official who has done extensive work in Africa for the World Health Organization, says that early comparisons to HIV/AIDS prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa created unnecessary alarm.

“If they’re talking about an epidemic that’s out of control, or that things are getting worse, that’s just not in the data,” Stoneburner told the Post. Following the release of the 2008 epidemiology report, Shannon Hader, director of the city’s HIV/AIDS administration, said that DC’s HIV rates were “on par with Uganda and parts of Kenya.”

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Craig, Orlando,Fla, 2009-03-24 12:06:07
Well I feel that any growth in the number of cases is just unacceptable! Why do we have any new cases? Well it is because it is still a TABOO thing. Even among GLBT community it is a TABOO thing. And then we have the DL or the Chasers. This is one virus that YES it may take 100yrs, Yet we can get rid of it. Just everyone needs to get tested and know! Education is the KEY to this Virus! Yet we do not even test on a standard basis folks whom go to the ER. We Need EDUCATION of the VIRUS

dbeck, Houston, 2009-03-24 11:38:31
Maybe creating some public alarm about the HIV rate is a GOOD thing and people will take HIV prevention and safer sex messages more seriously.