D.C.’s Black Community Struggles With HIV/AIDS Rates

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• JIM LEHRER:

  Next, AIDS in America, which is drawing new focus this week at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.

  More than one million Americans have HIV. The latest figures show that, in 2006 alone, there were about 56,000 new infections. African-Americans have been particularly hard-hit.

  NewsHour health correspondent Betty Ann Bowser reports on the situation in Washington, D.C. The Health Unit is a partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

• BETTY ANN BOWSER, NewsHour Correspondent:

  The nation's capital is in the midst of a modern-day HIV-AIDS epidemic. In a city of 600,000 people, the District of Columbia has more than 12,000 cases, and 81 percent of them are African-Americans.

  That's why community organizers like Terry Hawkins of the Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church are trying to get to young people before it's too late.

• TERRY HAWKINS, Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church:

  All it takes is one time, just one time, one slip-up, "Oh, I forgot the condom," or, "Oh, I'm going to try. You know, I don't think it can happen to me." One time is all it takes for you to become infected.

• BETTY ANN BOWSER:

  The kids are given very explicit information about how to use condoms and are told that, to stay safe, they must always use them when having sex. It's just one community organization's attempt to get at an issue that is Washington's number-one health problem.

  The District of Columbia has more HIV-AIDS cases than any city in the country. Here, a staggering 1 out of 20 people is infected with the virus. And like most American cities with an HIV-AIDS problem, the burden disproportionately falls on the black community.

  In fact, more than 80 percent of all new cases in the district are African-Americans.