By Emily Bridges, Director, Public Information Services

District of Columbia’s HIV Epidemic Severe
Three percent of District of Columbia residents are known to be living with HIV/AIDS, and   The epidemic is most severe among adults ages 40-49, with 7.2 percent infected ; among youth ages 20-29, 1.1% are infected.  DC’s rates are higher than West Africa and on par with Uganda. Social networks are a major driver of the epidemic; mean having sex with men was the primary transmission mode for whites while heterosexual sex was the primary transmission mode for African Americans.  A companion report on HIV and heterosexuals explored factors which drive and intersect with the HIV epidemic, including poverty, lack of access to health care, concurrent sexual partners,  and unreliable condom use.

With twenty percent of the District of Columbia’s population under age 18, over a hundred thousand young people are growing up in one of the nation’s cities worst affected by the HIV epidemic. Their equal access to information, condoms/contraception, and health care must be ensured.

Read the HIV/AIDS Epidemiology report: District of Columbia HIV/AIDS Epidemiology Update 2008*

Read the report on heterosexuals.

Learn more about social networks/concurrent partners and HIV: Understanding Disparities in the HIV Epidemic    

CDC releases Preliminary Data on 2007 Birth Rates
On Wednesday March 18th, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) released a report which included preliminary data for 2007 on births in the United States. The preliminary estimate of births in 2007 rose 1 percent to 4,317,119, the highest number of births ever registered for the United States. The general fertility rate increased by 1 percent in 2007, to 69.5 births per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years, the highest level since 1990. Increases occurred within all race and Hispanic origin groups and for nearly all age groups. The birth rate for U.S. teenagers 15–19 years rose again in 2007 by about 1 percent, to 42.5 births per 1,000. The birth rate for teenagers 15–17 and 18–19 years each increased by 1 percent in 2007. The rate for the youngest group, 10–14 years, was unchanged. The report does not draw any conclusions or make any suggestions as to why these rates rose; nor does it give any statistics on pregnancy rates for 2007. Pregnancy rates will be calculated at a later date based on birth rates, abortion rates, and estimated miscarriage rates for the year.

Read the report

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