City health officials carried a first report regarding the HIV/AIDS incidence in Washington D.C. Up to now, due to its special and unique status, Washington D.C. has been under congressional management and was kept apart from other U.S. cities. Although, the city has adopted routine HIV testing, Washington D.C. citizens have to ask to take this test.

The city health officials report shows numbers that are very high compared to other U.S. cities. More HIV infected babies are born in Washington D.C. The city rated almost 9 percent of pediatric AIDS cases in 2005. The number of heterosexual contact transmissions is higher than Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, Detroit and Chicago.

In 2006 the city rated 37 percent of newly reported heterosexual transmissions. Also, the 2006 AIDS rate is 128 cases per 100,000 people, almost ten times higher than the national rate of 14 cases per 100,000 people. Washington D.C. numbers 12,428 people HIV infected, 80 percent being from the black community. Nationally, 39 percent of HIV infected people develop AIDS within a year, but in Washington D.C. this rate goes up to 70 percent, meaning that most of them were diagnosed years after being infected with the immunodeficiency virus.

City health officials see better testing and treatment of pregnant women as a solution to reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. They hope that this number will drop to zero by 2009. They also stated that AIDS is a disease that grows in areas of poverty and their report show the need for a better prevention through universal testing.