D.C. residents see AIDS as city’s biggest health problem

[Guest guest]

D.C. residents see AIDS as city's biggest health problem

By Darryl Fears, Peyton M. Craighill and Isaac Arnsdorf,

Despite the city's efforts to prevent the spread of the disease and make

treatment available, HIV/AIDS tops the list as the District's most urgent health

problem, according to a new survey by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family

Foundation.

More than a third of city residents single out HIV/AIDS — first identified 30

years ago — as the city's biggest health concern. Nationally, cancer and obesity

get far more mentions.

And the scourge of HIV/AIDS weighs particularly heavily on the minds of African

American residents, who suffer from the disease in disproportionate numbers, are

far more likely than white residents to raise it as a concern in discussions and

more often fret over whether they or their family members will become infected.

More than four in 10 African Americans — 44 percent — say they personally are

concerned about contracting HIV, compared with 10 percent of white residents,

according to the poll.

" It's spreading so rapidly in the black community, " said Ahwaneda Brown,

reflecting the concern of the 65 percent of African American respondents who

fear a family member might get the virus. Only 8 percent of white residents are

similarly worried.

Although Brown has not discussed the issue with her adult grandchildren, the

82-year-old retired school counselor said: " I know my daughter has. I have the

type of family that will talk with their children because I have talked to mine.

We are very open about talking. "

The District has what is considered to be one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS

in the nation. More than 3 percent of residents older than 12 — about 16,000

people — are stricken, high enough to be categorized as an epidemic under to a

standard set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World

Health Organization.

Fully three-quarters of residents living with the virus are African Americans,

according to the city's latest annual epidemiology report. It found that 17

percent are white and 5 percent Hispanic.

The disease's impact is widely noted: nearly seven of 10 African American

residents say the spread of HIV/AIDS is a problem in their communities, versus

just half of white residents.

About two-thirds of blacks say they know someone directly affected by HIV or

AIDS. Across the city, 58 percent of residents say someone they know has the

disease or has died of it — far higher than the 41 percent who said so in a

national survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Potentially contributing to the challenge for the city's black residents is that

they are far less likely than whites to have private health insurance. More than

90 percent of white residents say they get coverage through an employer or

another private source, but only 47 percent of black residents say they do.

The D.C. government provides free health care and medicine to residents who have

the HIV virus.

But financial difficulties affect the health care of many District residents.

Fully 25 percent of African Americans with incomes under $20,000 say they have

delayed medical care in the past year because they couldn't afford it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/dc-residents-see-aids-as-c\

itys-biggest-health-problem/2011/06/17/AGFRrZdH_story.html