A new report by the D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice says that while the District of Columbia government has made progress in tackling the HIV epidemic, it must do more to raise public awareness of the problem. It is the fourth report the prominent advocacy group has released since it began tracking the district’s HIV rate in 2005.

It is estimated the district has the highest rate of new AIDS reports in the United States, with 128 cases per 100,000 residents, compared to the U.S. average of 14 per 100,000. It also has one of the highest rates of people living with the disease among major U.S. cities, according to the district health department. Nearly 12,500 people in Washington were known to have HIV or AIDS in 2006, the most recent year for which statistics are available.

In the last three years, the report says, the D.C. government has created a “top-flight” leadership team at the city’s HIV/AIDS Administration, and it has expanded testing programs in city jails. The district also has made progress in HIV prevention basics, such as needle exchange and education efforts in the schools, it says.

However, the report notes, “The district must take aggressive action to address the remaining obstacles to rolling back the epidemic. We of course welcome Mayor [Adrian] Fenty’s call for HIV to be his top health priority, but sustained, highly visible government efforts to broadly raise awareness of the severity of the epidemic have been absent and reflect a lack of urgency.”

“One of the things that I’d like to see is Fenty frankly speaking out more on this issue,” said Appleseed executive director Walter Smith. “A very active mayor could influence the faith-based community, the African-American communities, the Latino communities there” and help reduce HIV stigma, he said.

[Source: CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention | Washington Post | September 24, 2008 | Petula Dvorak]