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Straight Sex Now the Number One Cause of HIV Infections in Washington D.C.

In the first report on HIV in the District of Columbia ever assembled, the D.C. Department of Health HIV/AIDS Administration found that HIV is most often contracted through heterosexual contact, and strikes African-American men and women in numbers out of proportion to their percentage in the general population. According to the report, there were 12,428 people living with HIV or AIDS in the District of Columbia. Most were male (70 percent) and African-American (90.7 percent). While 27 percent of those HIV/AIDS infections were transmitted by men having sex with men, more than 37 percent of the D.C.-area HIV/AIDS cases were contracted through heterosexual sex. Another 20.8 percent were attributed to injection drug use.

In an article published today by the Washington Post, Shannon Hader, the head of D.C.’s HIV/AIDS administration, described HIV as everybody’s disease. “It blows the (gay) stereotype out of the water,” she told the Post.

The District of Columbia has the highest AIDS case rate in the nation, with 128.4 cases per 100,000 people. Nationally, the AIDS rate is 14 cases per 100,000 Americans. The report also showed a 43 percent increase in reported cases in the District from 2001 to 2006, although the Department of Health asserted that some of that increase may be a reflection of an increased use and effectiveness of HIV medications.

A complete copy of the 2007 HIV/AIDS Epidemiology Annual Report can be viewed here.