Health care officials wrestle with  ongoing racial health disparities in nation’s capital 

By Helen BezunehSpecial to the AFRO As the U.S. confronts a fresh surge of COVID-19 infections this winter, the ongoing issue of racial health disparities in D.C. continues to show nagging gaps. While D.C. is home for some of the nation’s highest ranked medical centers, data from the District’s eight wards show uneven health outcomes. Residents in predominantly White Ward 3 have a life expectancy averaging 87.6 years, yet life expectancy is 74.7 years for residents in Ward 7 and 72 years in Ward 8, according to Conduent Healthy Communities’ 2023 Health Equity Index. “Those living in Ward 8 are 2.5 times more likely to die from cancer, four times more likely to die from heart disease, six times more likely to die from diabetes and, for Black mothers in D.C., the maternal mortality rate is 10 times the national average,” Mara Vandlik, spokesperson for Unity Health Care, largest health care system east of the Anacostia River, said. Those numbers echo troubling conclusions reached in a 2021 study conducted by AARP District of Columbia and Georgetown University’s Department of Health Administration. The study found that rates for heart failure, diabetes, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma in D.C. were...