Baltimore’s average HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is more than three times the national average, yet The Sun failed to acknowledge World AIDS Day on Dec. 1 (“Commemorating World AIDS Day in Baltimore,” Nov. 29). The only related article was an op-ed. Since 2016, I can find only 12 articles have been published with “HIV” in the title. In 2017 alone, the local health department reported 231 new HIV diagnoses for a rate of 44.7 per 100,000 people.
I’ve lived in a suburb of Baltimore my entire life and always woke up to The Baltimore Sun on my kitchen counter. Yet, until taking the course, “Critical Analysis of Health: AIDS” this semester, I had no idea the extent of Baltimore’s problem. When I became old enough to pay attention to the news, I felt inundated with the message that Baltimore had an opioid problem, a drug problem, an income inequality problem. But in my course this semester, I felt completely uneducated about the city’s HIV/AIDs problem.
As Baltimore’s newspaper, it is your duty to inform the public. There are local organizations combating this crisis that could be highlighted in articles to inform about the disease and raise awareness about their work. I hope I won’t continue to be disappointed in my hometown paper.
Anna McGinnis, Towson
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