Let's talk about sex, D.C. We're guessing an opening like that is destined to get some attention. Only this week, we need to address a startling and unfortunate side of sex that can downright take the fun out of making that sweet booty music. A report released last week crowned this great city as an HIV/AIDS haven with the highest infection rates in the country. At three percent, D.C. ranks up there with Kenya. And while the vast majority of D.C. residents living with HIV/AIDS are black males over 40, the issue still deserves special attention among the younger college population. HIV/AIDS is everyone's problem.
Just because we're a little older - though not much wiser - doesn't mean we weren't there a few years back. We witnessed the late nights of studying and partying, and we may have indulged in a few of the traditional vices, too - the late-night studying, anyway. But when unprotected sex or needle sharing gets thrown into the mix, the repercussions jump from a bad grade and a really bad headache to something lifelong and deadly.
A Centers for Disease Control study estimates that one in four women aged 14-19 has been infected by a sexually transmitted disease. By age 24, that number rises to one in three. One in three! These diseases, including human papillomavirus, Chlamydia and others are no laughing matter. And as the great 1991 Al Brooks movie, "Defending Your Life," said, when you sleep with someone, you sleep with everyone they've ever slept with.
So you get an STI - then what? You have to tell your current and former partners about it. Awkward! Luckily, technology rides to the rescue. Web sites like www.inspot.org offer free E-Cards that can be sent anonymously to break the bad news. Messages are short and to the point, but sweet they're not. For example, one features a loose coil of string and reads: "Sometimes there are strings attached. I got diagnosed with STIs since we were together. Get checked out soon."
So use that service if you need it, but why even let things get to that uncomfortable point? This brings us to a ridiculously obvious and predictable take-home point: use a condom. Get tested. We didn't think we'd need to say that, but here we are, in 2009, facing a three percent HIV/AIDS rate in the capital of the United States.
But lest you think this column has climaxed too early, there's more. And yes, folks, that's a sex joke in a column about sex. We're shameless. All this talk about AIDS has us wondering: what's the connection between HIV/AIDS and the way this country's health care system works?
To find out more, we asked our colleague and fellow Washington College of Law student Rebecca Wolf, who recently published numerous academic articles on health care and the law.
As Ms. Wolf explained, our healthcare system exacerbates the HIV/AIDS epidemic, particularly among the indigent. Uninsured or underinsured people with HIV go undiagnosed and unknowingly infect others longer than those with adequate health insurance.
"It's just shameful," she said. "We are the only industrialized nation that does not have a national health insurance program. The prevalence and rise of HIV in this country is just one piece of a much larger puzzle."
We could not agree more with Ms. Wolf. As a country that holds itself out as top rate, the United States is cut-rate when it comes to health care. And it's not just where AIDS is concerned. We could go on and on spilling ink about infant mortality rates and preventable deaths due to obesity among the uninsured, but we'll stop with this. As one of the comparatively privileged and probably insured people in this country, you have the duty not to worsen a fatal trend. Don't let your body be the vehicle of a needless epidemic.
Ben Moss and Brittany Meyer are students in the Washington College of Law and columnists for The Eagle. You can reach them at edpage@theeagleonline.com.
