Washington DC and HIV

Based on a report just published, "The District of Columbia HIV/AIDS Epidemiology Update 2008":

Overall, 3 percent of all District residents are currently known to be living with HIV/AIDS. To put that in context, the United Nations Joint Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have historically defined an HIV epidemic as generalized and severe when the overall percentage of disease among residents of a specific geographic area exceeds 1 percent. The overall proportion in the District is three times higher. This calculation is based on the number of cases already diagnosed and reported and U.S. Census figures of our population. Moreover, based on new targeted studies of behavior that indicate between one-third and one-half of residents may be unaware of
their infection, we know that the true number of residents currently infected and living with HIV is certainly higher. In the District, nearly every population group and age is experiencing a substantial epidemic."


To put that in national perspective, the US prevalence of HIV is about 0.6%.
You can see a list of countries by HIV prevalence here.