Washington D.C. Has Highest HIV-AIDS Rate In The Nation

Washington, D.C. the nation's capitol, home to President Obama and his family, and a vibrant tourist destination, has the highest rate of HIV-AIDS in the country. A new report shows that 3 percent of the city's population is infected with the virus.

Washington D.C. officials are expected to release a report Monday revealing that 3 percent of the population is infected with the HIV-AIDS virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines an epidemic as infecting 1 percent of the population. The report was conducted by the DC HIV-AIDS Administration, which found that almost 1 in 10 of people who live there between the ages of 40 and 49 has the virus. The report details that it is being spread in the usual manner, through heterosexual sex, homosexual sex and intravenous drug use. The city is home to high concentrations of at-risk groups -- African Americans and gay men. But the report points out that the virus is cutting across all demographics. It increased 22 percent from 2006, with epidemic proportions in all but one of the city's eight neighborhoods. Health officials put the blame on individual behavior, and also on the city's haphazard response to the crisis. Shannon Hader is the 12th director of the city's HIV/AIDS Administration and the third in five years. She tells the Washington Post today.

"Our rates are higher than West Africa. They're on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya."

DC's rate of infection comes close to what San Francisco experienced in the 1990's at the height of the epidemic. At that time, San Francisco had a 4 percent rate of infection. But despite the fact that almost 30 years has passed since the epidemic first appeared in the U.S., there's still a very real stigma attached to the disease. And DC Health officials say it is that stigma that keeps people from getting tested, so the actual rates of HIV-AIDS in the nation's capital are probably much higher.