Associated Press - December 1, 2003

AIDS counselors said trends are changing in part because new drugs are keeping AIDS patients alive longer, and because education about AIDS has not kept up with trends.

"Through education we could stop the spread of AIDS. People cannot forget that AIDS is still here and very much alive. Because of medication and people living longer, people tend to think it's over," said Luz Gonzalez, executive director of Espanos Unidos Inc., a New Haven agency that helps AIDS patients, especially Spanish-speakers.

Nationally, Connecticut ranks ninth in the number of AIDS cases per 100,000 residents, the state Department of Public Health reported in its 2003 AIDS survey.

There are about 18,000 people in the state living with AIDS or infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

New AIDS cases have declined from a high of 1,763 in 1993 to about 600 for the past few years. Deaths have declined 62 percent since 1995.

But the state last year started taking detailed data of HIV infections, not just AIDS cases, and found a worrisome trend: 40 percent of new HIV infections were diagnosed in Hispanics, said Rosa Biaggi, director of the AIDS and chronic disease division of the state Department of Public Health.

There are about 340,000 Hispanics in Connecticut, or nearly 10 percent of the state population.

About 32 percent of AIDS cases in Connecticut are in Hispanics.

For Hispanics, the hardest-hit cities are Hartford, New Britain and Waterbury. Intravenous drug use was the most common cause of infection.

"In almost every region that has prioritized Latinos as a group demanding attention, we have implemented programs targeting them," Biaggi said.

Hispanics may be more vulnerable to HIV infection because some are immigrants who lack English language skills, education and access to health care that other groups have, she said.

Women made up 43 percent of those with HIV infections, and 30 percent of full-blown AIDS cases in the state.

Intravenous drug use was the cause for half the AIDS infections, but 40 percent of the cases involved infection through sex with men.

New testing may be part of the reason why larger numbers of infections in women are reported, Biaggi said.

For the past few years, the state has strongly encouraged pregnant women to be tested for HIV, since measures can be taken to stop mother-to-baby transmission of the virus. If the mother refuses the test, the baby is tested after it is born.

This testing system, combined with new drugs and knowledge, has dramatically decreased the number of mother-to-baby infections. Years ago, about 30 percent of babies born to infected mothers would also be infected. Today, it is less than 4 percent, she said.

Connecticut's AIDS numbers follow national trends, Biaggi said. The state will need to collect a few years of HIV infection data to determine trends.

Today , which the United Nations has designated "World AIDS Day," people are urged to remember ways to prevent the disease from spreading.

AIDS support groups are reaching out to Pentecostal and Roman Catholic churches, as well as schools and community agencies, to spread the word about how to prevent infection, Gonzalez said.

Espanos Unidos provides education, counseling, mental health services and substance abuse counseling for people with AIDS, as well as programs to help people take the complex variety of anti-AIDS drugs and a summer camp for infected children.

The 2002 AIDS incidence rate was for 70 cases per 100,000 population in Bridgeport, 91 per 100,000 population for Hartford, 62 for Waterbury and 68 for New Haven.

Eastern Connecticut, while the most sparsely populated part of the state, is dealing with a comparatively large number of cases.

New London had 46 cases per 100,000 population in 2002, for example, and Windham had 40 cases per 100,000.

Stamford, about five times larger than either city, had 22 cases per 100,000 residents, and Meriden, which is twice the size of either city, had 12 cases per 100,000 residents.

In New London, AIDS infections also follow national trends, said Michael Giconi, the case management supervisor for Alliance for Living, a community service group for people with AIDS.

"There is certainly a lack of a sense of urgency in getting tested. I think there's still the misconception that, æIt can't happen to me.' Because we are fairly rural in most places, we still have the idea that perhaps AIDS is not in my back yard," Giconi said.

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