AIDS rate soars in nation's capital

Although, as I posted earlier, it is possible that the AIDS epidemic could be brought under control, this is not in fact the case in the US. In fact in some areas the situation is getting much worse.

Reports hitting the press today, based on a report being released tomorrow, suggest that at least 3 percent of the District of Columbia's residents have AIDS, a total that far surpasses the 1 percent threshold that constitutes a "generalized and severe" epidemic.

"Our rates are higher than West Africa," said Shannon Hader, director of the district's HIV/AIDS Administration who once led the Federal CDC's work in Zimbabwe.

'(A)lmost 30 years since the epidemic broke out in the United States, there's still a very real stigma attached to the disease.

Health officials in Washington say that stigma keeps people from getting tested, so the actual rates of HIV-AIDS in the nation's capital is probably much higher.'