Depressing news this morning from the Post: D.C. Estimates Up to 25,000 Residents Have H.I.V.
A sobering article, to be sure. I did have one problem with the reporting in the article, however, in an assumption they made:
At the close of 2004, the last year for which complete figures are available, 16,165 AIDS cases had been reported in the city since the epidemic began in 1981. Of those, 9,110 people were still living with the disease — meaning nearly 45 percent had died.
Well, no, while there are likely a good number that have died, this doesn’t take into account people who move away, and given the transient nature of much of this city, that may be a good several percentage points. I realize it makes better copy to say ‘death’ but it’s not entirely accurate.
In any case, it’s good that the city is refocusing on the issue. Increasing the availability, timeliness and likelihood of testing is a good thing. Thank heavens the city finally replaced the management at the Department of Health, as well as the Councilmember who oversees that department. Those two actions alone have made large strides (unreported in this article) towards addressing this chronic epidemic.
