Whitman-Walker Clinic

For Immediate Release
Oct. 16, 2006

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WHITMAN-WALKER CLINIC LAUNCHES ‘HIV REALITY CHECK’ CAMPAIGN

Print Ads Spotlight Extremely High HIV/AIDS Rates in D.C.

WASHINGTON – Whitman-Walker Clinic has launched an ad campaign highlighting the problem of HIV and AIDS in the District of Columbia by comparing the city’s epidemic to sub-Saharan Africa and to U.S. national averages.

Entitled “HIV Reality Check,” the ads in the campaign point out that the percentage of adults living with HIV in D.C. is higher than that in 27 of the 44 sub-Saharan nations.

“D.C.’s rate is higher than that of Nigeria, Angola, Ethiopia – and 24 more of the 44 sub-Saharan countries,” one ad states. The international statistics come from the UNAIDS/World Health Organization 2006 report on the global AIDS epidemic.

One in 20 D.C. adults – or 5 percent of the population -- is estimated to be living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to a 2005 analysis by The Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. This places D.C. between Nigeria, at 3.9 percent, and Cameroon, at 5.4 percent, according to the UNAIDS statistics. (Liberia may be tied with D.C., with a rate of between 2 percent and 5 percent but data from that country are insufficient, according to UN AIDS.)

“HIV and AIDS continue to be an enormous problem in this city,” said Donald Blanchon, Whitman-Walker Clinic’s chief executive officer. “While it’s important for the United States to help sub-Saharan Africa fight its epidemic, we cannot become complacent about the epidemic at home. We must devote the resources necessary to get our citizens tested, to educate them about safer sex and, if they have HIV, to get them the medications that can prolong their lives.”

Another of the ads in the series notes that the rate of new AIDS case in D.C. is 12 times the national average. “Nearly 180 of every 100,000 D.C. residents have AIDS, compared to just 15 out of 100,000 nationally,” the ad says. “AIDS is far from over – especially here in our nation’s capital.”

The ads will appear on Metro buses, on subway platforms and in subway cars for the next several months. Copies of the ads can be downloaded from Whitman-Walker’s website at www.wwc.org.

Established in 1973, Whitman-Walker Clinic is a non-profit, community-based provider of health care and social services in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Through three sites, in the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia, the Clinic offers primary medical and dental care; mental health and addictions counseling and treatment; HIV education, prevention, and testing; legal services; case management; and a food bank. Whitman-Walker Clinic is committed to meeting the life needs of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community and people living with HIV/AIDS.