Recent months have brought startling reminders about the HIV
crisis in the United States. When health officials in
Washington, DC reported that three percent of city residents are
living with HIV, including nearly seven percent of the city’s
black men, the media and much of the nation reacted with
surprise. Yet, the reality is that DC is not the only American
city that faces a severe HIV epidemic. Many urban areas-from
major cities like San Francisco and New York to smaller
communities like Columbia, South Carolina and Jackson,
Mississippi, are heavily impacted by HIV and AIDS. At a national
level, the latest estimates suggest that roughly 56,000
Americans are becoming infected each year. That means that every
9 ½ minutes, another American becomes infected with HIV. This
week, the Obama Administration launched a new campaign to combat
what we believe is a severe threat to the health of the nation.
That threat is complacency about HIV – a false sense of security
and calm that hides what remains a health crisis