HIV/AIDS Report Card
DC Appleseed Center pleased by progress
Overall, the District’s efforts in combating HIV/AIDS are above average, according to the DC Appleseed Center for Law and Justice’s third annual HIV/AIDS in the Nation’s Capital: Improving the District of Columbia’s Response to a Public Health Crisis report, presented in the form of a report card.
In areas for improvement, including dealing with HIV/AIDS in public schools, D.C. scored a ”D,” worse than previous years — 2005 was B minus, 2006 a C minus.
DC Appleseed Center, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to ”solving important public policy problems” facing the city, offers suggestions for improvement:
”Adopt system-wide health education standards, including HIV/AIDS prevention,” the report card advises. ”Develop and implement a plan for enhancing HIV/AIDS policy for [D.C. Public Schools].”
In a Dec. 13 press release, Walter Smith, executive director of DC Appleseed, said the report card is used to ”bring continuing visibility to the epidemic and to the need to make the city’s response an urgent priority.”
According to the data, which includes several ”A” and ”B” grades, ”DC Appleseed is pleased by the progress, but the new data and this report card show that much more needs to be done.”
To view the full report card, including detailed explanations for each grade, visit www.dcappleseed.org.
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