Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1984. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The New York Times - November 30, 1984
Bayard Webster
The centers reported that as of Nov. 26 there had been a cumulative total of 6,993 cases of the ailment, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, in the United States since 1981, when it was first reported.
In the two weeks leading up to Nov. 26, the end of the last reporting period, 136 new cases were reported. The weekly average for that two-week period is 68 cases, a rate slightly below the weekly average for the most recent four months of this year. But spokesmen for the Centers said that throughout 1984 the number of AIDS cases had increased by 74 percent over the same period of 1983, a rate that has been fairly constant.
The number of fatalities has also increased and now stands at at 3,342, or 48 percent of all reported cases. A year ago the fatality rate was 41 percent. The death rate has increased because more people have had the disease for longer periods.
AIDS, a usually fatal disease, destroys the body's immune system and its ability to ward off infection. Population groups with the highest incidence of the disease are homosexual males, intravenous drug abusers, Haitian immigrants and hemophiliacs.
The centers reported that although the number of cases being reported continues to increase in all of these groups, the rate of increase among Haitians patients was significantly less than among the other groups.
The centers noted that heterosexual transmission of AIDS had been reported in both the United States and Africa. But they said this form of transmission has been uncommon in the United States, where it occurs primarily among men, particularly intravenous drug abusers, who transmit the disease to their female partners. In several African countries, however, heterosexual transmission seemed to be the predominant mode of spreading AIDS, the centers said.
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