Riley Croghan CORE 116 Spring 2007

The AIDS Epidemic in Washington, DC Paper Three: Moving Forward

MOVING FORWARD

        When I began this project, I was shocked to discover the terrible epidemic that had been going on in my hometown—a crisis that I was only vaguely aware was even occurring. I have discussed my initial reactions and provided a statistical analysis of the problem as it stands today. Now I plan to take a look at how we can stop it.

            I discovered through my analysis that, while AIDS began as a problem primarily among the District’s white gay men, by the late nineties new AIDS cases in white gay men were dwindling, and the numbers in the black population exploded—DC now has the highest rate anywhere in America of new AIDS cases each year. The battle is now over prevention in the black community, and is being fought on two equally dangerous fronts: intravenous drug users, and black men having sex with men.