The Katrina of Public Health

Some alarming, awe-inspiring, news today out of Washington, D.C., and no, it's not Trent Lott's resignation. The results of a study, the first of its kind, of HIV cases in the nation's capital are out, and they show that AIDS has reached "epidemic" proportions in D.C. (WaPo)

In the five-year test period in question, ending in 2006, while African-Americans comprise roughly 60 percent of the city's population, they account for more than 80 percent of the more than 3,000 HIV cases that have been identified. Ninety percent of women residents who tested positive for the disease are African-American. And, nearly 40 percent of reported cases were among heterosexuals showing, in the words of a District administrator, that "HIV is everybody's disease" in D.C.

The presence of an epidemic of this magnitude so close to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue can't help but make one wonder if federal policy, or non-policy is at the nucleus of this health catastrophe. Yet, where is the public outrage that a campaign of misinformation, disinformation, or information/education blockade should claim the same demographic casualties as that of Hurricane Katrina.

Notably, D.C.'s AIDS rate is the highest of any city in the U.S., and twice that of other major urban areas like New York. Ostensibly, many of the 50 million uninsured Americans who live in our nation's capital are unable to get tested, or treated because they have no access to health care, but there are other numbers with respect to the African-American community that are almost as startling. While blacks comprise only 12 percent of the population, nearly half of those on death row are African-American. Incarceration rates for blacks and Latinos, in this country, are more than six times greater than for whites. One third of whites 25 or older have a college degree while only about 17 percent of blacks have graduated from college.

Many fault District health officials for not disseminating enough information, and creating a climate which is user-friendly for AIDS awareness, but the seeds of this campaign of devout ignorance may be found in the earliest days of this administration's tenure. As president-elect, George W. Bush told The New York Times "the jury is still out" on evolution. His attitude towards condom distribution, sex education, and HIV prevention shows that, for George Bush, the jury is out on science, too.

On this administration's watch, more than $100 million in grants have been allocated for abstinence-only education programs. The president pressured the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to eliminate, from its Web site, anything that might promote the efficacy of using condoms to prevent STDs, and AIDS. Roughly 90 percent of the $15 billion set aside for fighting HIV globally has been made available to domestic groups for use in their ongoing worldwide campaign to promote abstinence, and to discourage the use of condoms in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Is it any wonder then that the spread of HIV/AIDS of this magnitude among the largest minority population of any American city should strike this close to home for a president who, as his response to Hurricane Katrina has clearly shown, is one of devout neglect.

In a city the size of D.C. that has nearly 20,000 of its residents infected by this deadly disease, somebody's got to pony up to how it came to pass that such a vast number, many of whom are over 40, manage to find themselves stricken with HIV or AIDS. And, while many prefer to blame District health officials for lagging public awareness of the AIDS crisis in Washington, there is no doubt that this administration's stalwart fundamentalist anti-science, anti-environment, and anti-reality ethos are principally responsible.

The platform of "compassionate conservatism" on which this president ran is no more to be found in these statistics than in the waving hands of those drowning as a result of a monstrous hurricane in New Orleans. Once again, it becomes crystal clear that survival, too, is a matter of privilege.

The jury is no longer out on this White House, and its contagion of ideology which has claimed the lives of thousands on the battlefield, and many more at home.

Follow Jayne Lyn Stahl on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jaynelynstahl

Comments

[AMolinaro]

Until we begin to offer free needle exhanges, encourage condom use, and fund drug treatment programs instead of locking addicts up with violent criminals, we will never make any headway against HIV in America. However, on each of these issues the conservative leadership has consistently lied to the American people and created horror stories of how these programs will lead to more drug addicts, more teen sex, and more crime.

As with far too many issues, it's the conservatism that's stopping America from doing the right thing.

[willymack]

Wouldn't it be nice if georgiepoo's guvmint spent as much $on AIDS research and prevention as on the Iraq tragedy? Of course there's no money in that, and war-even a phony one-generates huge profits and kickbacks for the select few.

[Ben Dixon]

You are absolutely right, lets blame President Bush for not creating a "nanny state" to protect us from our selves. After all individual people can't be held responsible for IV drug use, or have multiple sex partners, or not using safe sex practices to protect themselves from AIDS since that would negate the need for a "nanny state".

[peterg76]

It's simple, really. AIDS is a problem of *other* people. What did you think "small government" meant?

[BillLumbergh]

Uh, reality check here. 3,000 people in a city the size of DC is not an "epidemic". And these people have HIV because they abuse IV drugs.
It's time to stop spreading the lie that HIV is equally dangerous to everyone, because it's not. The dirty little secret of HIV is that if you don't shoot up or have gay sex, your chances of getting HIV are very slim. If you always wear a condom/barrier, the risk is zero.

[SydneyAustralia]

The population of Australia is 20 million and the HIV
total of just 10,000 with 4000 still living. TV ads promoting save sex/condom use/needle exchange
and a free health care system have worked.

Do the Republican God squad use condoms when they
have sex with hookers ?

[LouJon]

Para 4 - " the 50 million uninsured Americans who live in our nation's capital" - I don't think so!

[SamThornton]

When one is a politician most concerned with feathering one's nest, the problems of the "little people" are best dealt with by a 10 second sound bite.

Washington politicians, from the White House to the Congress, are the products of our Spencerian age, the age of the undeserving poor and of their own class's dog-eat-dog morality. Sick, poor, and struggling? Screw you, I'm getting mine: the mind-set of our political class.

It's almost enough to make one wonder not only why they should vote, but why they should not revolt.