Last week, The Washington Post reported that at least 3% of Washington DC residents have HIV or AIDS, which is triple the threshold for a ‘generalized and severe’ epidemic.  Almost 1 in 10 residents between 40 and 49 are living with the virus, and black men had the highest infection rate at almost 7%, the report said. It added that 3% of black women in D.C. have HIV.  And keep in mind that these rates only take into account those individuals that have been tested, so that means the actual numbers are probably much higher.

The District’s Director of the HIV/AIDS Administration told the Post that “every mode of transmission” — men having sex with men, heterosexual and injected drug use — is on the rise.  This is a 22% increase in the amount of cases since 2006, which puts it on par with Uganda and parts of Kenya.

Even though this study was conducted in Washington D.C., as reported previously, the numbers of those infected are also in the rise here in NYC, especially amongst young women. 

These figures come out in a time when funding is threatened to be cut.  This just goes to show that the fight for HIV/AIDS funding for education, treatment, and housing is unfortunately not even close to being over. 

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