DOH Report Shows “continued progress in the District’s fight against HIV and other diseases”

Photo by PoPville flickr user J Sonder

From the Mayor’s Office:

“Today, Mayor Vincent C. Gray and officials from the Department of Health (DOH) released a new report showing continued progress in the District’s fight against HIV and other diseases.

“My administration’s commitment to addressing the District’s HIV epidemic has turned the tide on HIV in our city, and I’m proud of the progress we continue to make,” said Mayor Gray. “While we are still experiencing an HIV epidemic, our innovative programs and partnerships have allowed us to make significant progress in reducing new HIV infections and improving treatment for those with HIV.”

The DOH report released today provides the annual update on the state of HIV, hepatitis, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and tuberculosis (TB) in the District through the end of 2012. This latest snapshot of the epidemic shows that the District continues to make progress in reducing new cases and improving health outcomes for those infected with HIV.

“The District continues to lead the way in getting people diagnosed with HIV infection earlier and connected to care through our treatment-on-demand policy,” Mayor Gray said. “We should continue to embrace and follow the National HIV Strategy so that the nation’s capital can get to zero new infections.”

This year’s annual report highlights continued improvements, such as:

Epidemiological Summary

· 16,072 residents of the District of Columbia (2.5 percent of the population) are living with HIV, which exceeds the World Health Organization definition of 1 percent as a severe epidemic.

· Blacks, Hispanics, and whites with HIV exceed 1 percent of their respective populations, with blacks disproportionately impacted at 3.9 percent.

· The DOH received no reports of confirmed cases of a baby born with HIV in 2012.

· The number of newly diagnosed HIV cases in the District decreased to 680 cases in 2012, a decline of 42 percent from 1,180 cases in 2008.

· There was an 81 percent decrease in the number of newly diagnosed HIV cases where reported mode of transmission was injection drug use. In 2008, the first year for the scale-up of the District’s needle-exchange program, there were 109 cases. In 2012, there were 21 cases. .

· The number of newly diagnosed AIDS cases decreased 35 percent, from 567 in 2008 to 370 in 2012.

· The number of deaths among persons with HIV decreased by 36 percent, from 345 in 2008 to 221 in 2012.

· There were 7,258 new cases of chlamydia, 2,605 new cases of gonorrhea and 173 new cases of primary and secondary syphilis reported in 2012.

· There were 2,402 new cases of chronic hepatitis B between 2008 and 2012.

· There were 9,819 new cases of chronic hepatitis C between 2008 and 2012.

· The rate of new TB cases decreased 35 percent, from 9.1 per 100,000 in 2008 to 5.9 per 100,000 persons in 2012.

Program Achievements

· Through the District’s needle-exchange programs, 550,000 needles were removed from the street in 2012 – an increase from 340,000 in 2011.

· 138,000 HIV tests were given in 2012, up from 122,000 in 2011 and more than triple the 43,000 tests in 2007.

· DOH distributed more than 5.7 million male and female condoms in 2012, a 10-fold increase from 2007.

· In 2012, DOH provided health information to nearly 5,000 students and screening to more than 3,000. In the 2013-2014, the District offered HIV testing in select schools.

· DOH launched a new hepatitis information campaign and is now offering hepatitis C screening at its STD clinic.

New in the 2013 Report

This year‘s report contains new data to provide more insight into the District‘s epidemics:

· HIV Incidence – for the first time, the DOH will report estimated HIV incidence data for the District. HIV incidence estimates the number of new HIV infections that occurred during the year. This estimate provides another snapshot into the District‘s HIV epidemic. This first estimate shows that there is a decline in new infections; new infections are proportionately impacting younger people; and new infections are proportionately more heterosexual.

· Hepatitis C – with the introduction of new medications with the potential to eradicate hepatitis C, the leading cause of liver disease and transplants in the country, DOH compiled data on the total number of reported chronic hepatitis C cases in the District from 2008 to 2012. With 15,915 cases documented during this timeframe, the magnitude of the hepatitis C epidemic in the District is at a minimum, comparable to that of HIV.

The epidemiology annual report is available on the DOH web site at www.doh.dc.gov/hahsta.”