The Miami Herald, Inc.; Saturday, February 15, 1997
Herald Staff

It's dramatic and long-awaited news: Last year in Florida, fewer people died from AIDS than during the year before. This decrease not only is a first, it reversed a steady, 15-year-long increase in the number of AIDS deaths.

AIDS has been a merciless and indiscriminate killer, so the downturn is indeed cause for celebration. Yet it's also a clear, ringing call for ever-greater precautions against HIV infections. Women, men, and children still are at great risk, some more than others.

New, potent, anti-viral drugs appear to be responsible for the one-year downturn. Though the statistics for the entire year are not yet complete, fewer than 3,300 Floridians died of AIDS last year, compared with almost 4,400 in 1995. In Dade, deaths dropped to 960 from 1,229 the year before. In Broward, the AIDS toll fell to 567 from 624.

These are significant and encouraging reversals. However, the rate of HIV infection, which causes AIDS, must remain of grave concern throughout Florida's medical, educational, and social communities. This is no time to relax, or even to rejoice unduly.

Along with ranking third in the nation in AIDS cases, Florida continues to have the second-highest number of children with the disease. Additionally, two studies -- one focused on South Beach, the other national in scope -- show a disturbing trend among young gay men to flout the warnings and engage in high-risk sexual behavior. Too many, despite knowledge, have fallen victim to a dangerous attitude: fatalism and complacency in the face of more-effective anti-AIDS drugs. Contaminated drug needles also remain one of the primary modes of transmission. Again, behavior must change.

The numbers of HIV and AIDS cases have remained so high that in all likelihood few Floridians -- even the uninfected majority -- can remain unaffected. It's commonplace nowadays to have friends, co-workers, neighbors, even siblings or children, who have contracted AIDS.

Those who care enough can do their part for both prevention and treatment by raising money through the eighth annual AIDS Walk. Last year 26,000 participants raised $550,000 for the Health Crisis Network. The agency has for years provided a number of life-saving services, from AIDS counseling to prevention education to mobile testing.

Florida's good news about AIDS will only get better if more people play a role in its prevention.

* AIDS Walk Miami will begin at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 23, at South Pointe Park, Miami Beach. For information on getting pledges beforehand, call 597-4404 or 757-4444, anytime.

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