HIV Infections Down 24 Percent Since 1999 in West Baltimore

State health officials yesterday declared a possible turning point in Maryland's fight against AIDS: The rate of new infections is declining in a wide swath of West Baltimore, the only area in the state where the infection rate had been rising.

The three-year decline in an area riddled with poverty, crime and drug abuse is due to stepped-up prevention efforts by the Maryland AIDS Administration, the city Health Department and a constellation of community groups, according to Liza Solomon, director of the Maryland AIDS Administration. An expanded needle exchange program, prevention-oriented billboards and bus placards, and new places for people to be tested and referred for treatment helped spark a 24 percent decline in new cases of HIV infection from 1999 through 2001.

The state spent $1.5 million on prevention efforts targeted to the area, and private groups won an additional $1.5 million in grants. The rate of new infections declined from 209 cases per 100,000 in 1999 to 159 cases per 100,000 last year.

"This clearly says we can make a dent," said Solomon. "A 24 percent decline ... translates into people's lives saved." But Baltimore still has the third-highest rate of new AIDS cases in the country, trailing New York and Miami. Community activists, while glad to see their efforts pay off, warn that the fight must continue.

"It doesn’t surprise me because there has been a concentrated effort over the last several years," said the Rev. Debra Hickman, director of Sisters Together and Reaching. "But I have a concern: We can't let up."

Angelique Mason, director of Becoming a Responsible Teen, a prevention program at Southwestern High School, said, "The population we work with ... think [HIV] is not going to happen to them." Mason works with the Payne Memorial AME Church.

Solomon said news of progress should not undermine Mayor Martin O'Malley's state of emergency against AIDS, declared December 2. "We should not be sanguine right now," she stated. "We have a lot of problems."

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