I ain't having sex with you...

Well like I needed yet another reason not to have sex... I got one last week. A friend forwarded me a press release from the DC Appleseed Center, a public policy and research center here in Washington. When I read the title, DC Appleseed Calls for Major Changes to District of Columbia's Response to HIV/AIDS Crisis, I was immediately like ok this is old news. Everyone who knows anything about DC and HIV knows there has been a crisis going on for awhile. But yet like voting rights... it always goes overlooked. So of course I didn't read the press release because this was old news to me.

So this morning as I am standing in line at the post office... I hear NPR in the background discussing this new report by DC Appleseed. Hearing the discussion made me want to read the report as soon as I got back home. Some of the most disturbing lowlights of the report were:

• The District's annual rate of new AIDS cases is over 10 times the national average and is
  believed now to be the highest of any major U.S. city.
• Unfortunately, even these numbers fail to capture the extent of the epidemic because
  they do not include HIV-positive people in the District who have not developed AIDS.
• District public health officials estimate that 1 out of every 20 District residents is infected.

While those facts are surprising the most interesting part of the report discusses the District of Columbia's efforts in addressing this epidemic. The report details how the District is not systematically collecting and analyzing data about the epidemic in a way that would allow it to plan prevention and care effectively. It also states that the current HIV/AIDS services are not sufficient for the population including efforts in schools, jails, and among drug users.

With all this said... get tested, ask your partner, and use protection... just like you wear a seat belt, look both ways before crossing a street.... take the initiative to protect your own life.