Officials Weigh Response to D.C. AIDS Epidemic

A report showing that 3 percent of residents are infected with HIV or AIDS

Hader said that the District’s HIV/AIDS rate is the highest in the nation — higher even than West Africa, and “on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya” where the disease is considered to be a crisis.

African Americans are most severely impacted, followed by gay white men and Latinos. Nearly 80 percent of residents with the virus are black. Seven percent of black men in the District have HIV or AIDS.

I had a discussion where I worked over the summer and a man said that talking about HIV/AIDS internationally is better than recognizing, acknowledging, and addressing HIV/AIDS in the US because it’s still too taboo to admit that the crisis exists here.