HIV/AIDS Capitol of America

Sometimes data just don't lie. For the latest update on HIV/AIDS - at epidemic levels - in Washington, D.C., please read America's HIV/AIDS Capitol. According to the editorial, "An estimated 1-in-20 D.C. residents is HIV positive. One in 50 has AIDS. It often takes a stunning document like Monday's highly publicized Department of Health HIV/AIDS report to cast these well-documented figures in their full, awful relief." Additionally, "The new cases afflict proportionally fewer young risk-takers than ever, more women and fewer homosexuals than has historically been the case. Approximately 34.2 percent of new HIV/AIDS cases in the District over the period 2001-06 afflict the 40-to-49 age bracket. Persons aged 30-to-39 are a close second at 31.3 percent. Eighty-one percent of new HIV cases afflict black D.C. residents (blacks account for 57 percent of the District's population). Sixty-five percent of the District's newly reported HIV/AIDS infections afflict males and 35 percent females, compared to a 2005 national rate of 74 percent male and 26 percent female." A person cannot own a gun in Washington, D.C. but they can certainly be put in danger from HIV/AIDS. You won't like the data but we Americans must start dealing with data we don't like in order to set our nation on a safer and more secure course.