One in Ten

Richard Edelman:

"Did you know that one in ten teenage girls in Washington, D.C. are HIV-positive? Did you know that one in twenty adults in the District of Columbia have AIDS? It is an outrage. Those are Third World types of incidence rates and it is happening in our nation’s capital. All of the attention being given to the AIDS epidemic overseas is long overdue but what about the crisis we have at home?"

I probed her [Sheila Johnson] for an explanation. She suggested three main factors:

1. A Macho Male Culture and Lack of Female Ego -- Young girls feel obliged to have sexual relations with their partners. Girls lack the confidence to say no or to insist on the use of a condom.
   
   
2. A Cycle of Despair -- The poor economic prospects, the large number of single parent families, the prevalence of drugs and tottering school system give little hope even to an ambitious child. Some young girls want to bear a child as a sign of being "grown-up."
   
   
3. Lack of Information --The basics of sex education do not seem to be getting through to the target audience.

I asked Ms. Johnson what could be done to ameliorate the situation. Here were a few of her thoughts:

Posted by Jim Zellmer at October 2, 2006 7:52 AM
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