Riley Croghan CORE 116 Spring 2007

The AIDS Epidemic in Washington, DC Paper Two

ANALYSIS

Ward Three

After looking at the numbers for Ward Three, which lags significantly behind in poverty and AIDS rates, I was a bit shocked with the results of a map of DC with respect to Transmission by males sleeping with males:

Map Two:

Wards 1 and 2 are located in the middle of DC's large gay community, so I was not surprised to discover that there might be an affluent, gay epidemic separate from the immediately obvious Black epidemic-- even though 72% of DC's AIDS cases are currently from African Americans [6], many of my friends have talked about their discovery of two separate and polar epidemics in their own communities.

But I was shocked to see that Ward 3 led the way with 72% Transmission from males sleeping with males. The ward isn't particularly known for its gay community. So why is this number so high?

Table Four: AIDS Cases by Mode of Transmission in Washington, D.C.****           

First, the number of MSM is higher in the White community than the Black community. Since we know Ward III is predominantly White, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that the majority of those afflicted received the virus through MSM. Even more importantly, Ward Three has a huge female population:

This map looks almost like an inverse of the map of transmission by MSM. Ward 3 has far more females than males, but a population roughly the same size as every other ward. Essentially this limits the male population to a level lower than it is in most wards; if we assumed that this limited the population to only one (male) AIDS victim, then the mode of transmission would be 100%.