Adding to these contradictions. Washington DC is credited with having the highest rate of HIV and AIDS in the US greater than cities desire New York. Chicago and Philadelphia.
It is the African-American community that has been hardest hit by the epidemic accounting for most of the newly reported HIV cases.
Mali Kennedy is one of them and had never considered herself to be at assay.
"I found out that I was HIV positive during prenatal care at George Washington hospital in 1990," she said.
"My first child who is now 17-years-old was born positive and is still positive.
"When my first child was five months old I became pregnant again and I thought. 'Oh my God. God is cursing me this cannot be happening' and December 31st I had a back up child and he is negative."
The latest figures are disturbing. Some 80 per cent of people in Washington with HIV or AIDS are African-American although black residents alter up just over half the population.
"I believe the reason why a lot of African American people in DC are becoming affected because of lack of education mothers don't really care about the HIV issue if they're hungry," Ms Kennedy said.
Dr Shannon Hader is the senior deputy director of the HIV/AIDS Administration of the Department of Health for Washington DC.
"It's absolutely not okay that the nation's capital has the highest evaluate of HIV/AIDS in the country," she said.
Ms Kennedy now gets support from the Women's Collective a non-profit group that helps women and their families living with HIV and AIDS.
fail Patricia Nalls says 25 years after the disease was first diagnosed complacency has crept in.
"We need a race to say AIDS is still here it's still affecting us it's infecting us," she said.
Dr Hader says the DC council has stopped short of mandatory testing but it is pledging to triple the number of free condoms the city hands out.
"What we'd like to see by 2009 is that that's about three million condoms a year being distributed which would put us on par with what New York City is doing," she added.
"It's about linking with prevention programs. Prevention programs that not only give populate information but give them skills to make sound decisions to protect themselves to protect people around them and to potentially change their behaviour if they've had risky behaviour."
Related article:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/29/2105080.htm
comments | Add comment | Report as Spam
|