AIDS in DC

The press coverage yesterday was depressingly scarce. 18 years of World AIDS Days and I guess everyone just doesn't care anymore.

Today the Washington Post's Darragh Johnson talked about the Whitman Walker clinic's mobile testing unit that was out on the streets yesterday. Despite the fact that:

Washington's rate of infection is alarmingly high -- at Whitman-Walker's clinic in Southeast the positive test rate is 6 percent -- and it's not going down. In 2001, in cities with more than a half-million residents, the relative numbers of Washingtonians infected with AIDS outpaced the country's other big cities, according to a thick report on "HIV/AIDS in the Nation's Capital," released in August by D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, a public interest organization.

So. To recap. Each of the numbers below represents the number of AIDS cases per 100,000 residents in 2001:

Washington -- 119

Baltimore -- 117

San Francisco -- 67

New York -- 64

Philadelphia -- 58

In 2003, two years later, D.C.'s number had jumped to 170.

(Johnson [2005] "In a City With A Big Problem, Trying to
Turn A Corner on AIDS" The Washington Post 2Dec05 )

Noone wants to get tested. The mobile testing unit spent the day hanging out and encouraging people to come and find out their status, but to little effect.

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Some good news: Yesterday the Guardian reported:

Europe, led by the UK, last night signalled a major split with the United States over curbing the Aids pandemic in a statement that tacitly urged African governments not to heed the abstinence-focused agenda of the Bush administration.

(Bosely [2005] "Europeans reject abstinence message
in split with US on Aids " The Guardian 1Dec05)