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According to the advocacy group D.C.
Appleseed, the District of Columbia’s recently released HIV statistics are
“troubling” because they show slight increases instead of decreases in three
key measures. These are the HIV transmission rate, the number of new HIV
diagnoses, and the proportion of new diagnoses that progressed from HIV to AIDS
in less than 12 months.
D.C. Health official Gregory Pappas
disputed the group’s conclusions in an e-mail, saying the data were
misinterpreted. According to the health department, signs of progress include a
decline in the total number of new HIV and AIDS cases. Appleseed’s executive
director Walter Smith acknowledged that some statistics have not been reported
long enough to show conclusive trends.
The prevalence rate of District
residents older than 12 living with HIV or AIDS in 2010 was 2.7 percent
according to the latest annual report, one of the highest rates for any US
city. Among African Americans, who comprise almost half of the city’s
population, the rate is 4.3 percent.
Although the HIV transmission rate
went up from 2009 to 2010, health officials said this increase was due to
change in reporting systems to eliminate duplication. Also, the increase in
newly diagnosed HIV cases - from 575 in 2009 to 617 in 2010 - was due to
expanded testing, according to health officials.
Pappas added that the data show that
the District is finding people with the disease earlier, leading to more
successful treatment.
About 52 percent of the 474 newly
diagnosed AIDS cases in 2010 were advanced infections, meaning the patients
progressed to AIDS within 12 months of their HIV diagnosis, an increase from 50
percent of 506 cases the year before.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
