Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1986. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The New York Times - September 14, 1986
The report, published on Friday in The Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first showing that having multiple sexual partners increases heterosexuals' risk of the liver infection hepatitis B, said a researcher who worked on the study.
The hepatitis B virus is transmitted through sexual intercourse and direct contact with blood or body fluids that contain blood.
The cause of AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is unknown, though it is thought to be transmitted virally through sexual contact or the transfer of bodily fluids.
Hepatitis B afflicts about 150,000 people in the United States each year. The researcher, Miriam Alter, of the Federal Centers for Disease Control, said the study could provide "a model for predicting transmission of AIDS in the heterosexual population."
Heterosexuals in the hepatitis study who had sex with three or more different partners in four months were up to 11 times more likely to have hepatitis B than the general population.
In the United States more than two-thirds of the victims of AIDS have been homosexual men. Most of the others have been intravenous drug users or hemophiliacs. However, concern is growing over reports of heterosexual transmission of AIDS in Africa and Haiti.
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