“The meaning of life is contained in every single expression of life.” – Michael Jackson Wilmer Leon Discusses the Decline of Civil Liberties, Page 23 •
C e l e b r a t i n g 4 7 Ye a r s o f S e r v i c e
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Serving More Than 50,000 African American Readers Throughout The Metropolitan Area / Vol. 47, No. 37 June 28 - July 4, 2012
Zelphia Turner, a community health worker at Positive Pathways, shared her story as a person who has been HIV-positive for 24 years during a press conference to release the findings of the District’s 2011 HIV/AIDS Report. Turner urged women to be tested when she addressed the audience on June 20 at the N Street Village in Northwest. /Photo by Victor Holt
D.C. HIV/AIDS Report Reveals Fewer Deaths
Infections Still Rampant Among Low-Income Black Women By Dorothy Rowley WI Staff Writer Two years ago, the District of Columbia struggled to get a grip on its burgeoning HIV/ AIDS cases which had reached pandemic proportions among the heterosexual population, and giving the city notoriety as the
leading AIDS infected jurisdiction in the nation. But even more disturbing is that in spite of its concerted efforts to quell the number of new cases, infections among heterosexual black women – particularly those living in the poorest wards in the city, have nearly doubled since 2008. The good
news however, is that in addition to the city showing a dip in the overall number of new AIDS cases in four years coupled with improvements that have gotten infected individuals into care more quickly, 76 percent of infected people received care within three months of diagnosis in 2010.
“The 2011 ‘HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD and TB Epidemiology Report’ is a picture of progress and we try to follow the national HIV/AIDS strategy,” Mayor Vincent Gray said on June 20 during a standingroom only press conference at N Street Village in Northwest, where he along with Dr. Mo-
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hammad Akhter, director of the D.C. Department of Health and Dr. Gregory Pappas, senior director at the department, shared findings contained in the 96page study. However, officials said little about how the epidemic has become commonplace
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