1 in 7 gay men in D.C. are HIV+
Posted by wac14
March 30, 2010
by Ruth Schneider, 365gay.com
3.29.10
About one in seven gay men in Washington, D.C., are HIV positive. That staggering figure was released last week by the D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration, according to a story by The Washington Post.
In a study of 500 gay men in the city, more than 40 percent of the participants were unaware of their diagnosis prior to the study. One in three men reported they didn’t know the status of their last partner.
“This is a wake-up call,” gay D.C. Council member David A. Catania told the Washington Post. “It’s time for my generation to assume greater responsibility for themselves and their partners. Just because we escaped the epidemic of the 1980s doesn’t mean we are immune.”
Last year, the city distributed more 3.5 million condoms and tested 95,000 people for HIV.
While the figures for HIV among gay men in D.C. are high – almost five times higher than the rate of HIV among adults and teens across the city – figures in other cities are higher. In San Francisco, 24 percent of gay men are HIV positive; in New York it’s 25 percent and in Baltimore, an astounding 40 percent.
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This is an absolutely staggering statistic. God, we need a cure, that's the bottom line. Of course, in the meantime, people have got to do a better job of protecting themselves; but God, we need a cure!