Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Monday, July 14, 1997 16:52:00
Dan Trotta

The overall slowing of the epidemic and the impact of effective new drug treatments has led to the lower death rates, but women and minorities are failing to benefit the same way men and whites are, experts said during the annual State of AIDS Forum.

In the first nine months of last year, 30,700 people in the United States died from AIDS, down 19 percent from the 37,900 who died in the first nine months of 1995, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

That continued a trend started in the first six months of 1996, when 13 percent fewer people with AIDS died than in the first six months of 1995, the first time a signficant drop was recorded.

Although figures are not yet available, experts believe the number of people contracting acquired immune deficiency syndrome -- currently about 40,000 Americans per year -- is declining.

"All of this is extremely good news," Helene Gayle, director of the CDC's national center that deals with AIDS, told a news conference. "We really are entering a new era."

The CDC is a group of federal agencies based in Atlanta that monitors infectious and preventable diseases like AIDS, which afflicts more than 600,000 Americans.

Gayle and other experts raised grave concerns because women and minorities were not benefiting from new treatments that are extending the lives of AIDS sufferers.

The death rate for men fell 22 percent in the first nine months of 1996 versus the same time period in 1995. By comparison, the death rate for women fell only seven percent.

The death rate for whites fell 28 percent compared to only 10 percent for African Americans and 16 percent for Hispanics, the CDC said.

"AIDS is not over," Daniel Zingale, executive director of AIDS action, an acclaimed AIDS advocacy organization, told reporters. "If we treat it like it is over, it never will be."

Specialists at the forum said the epidemic is slowing as high-risk groups like homosexual men and intravenous drug users are engaging in safer practices.

More important has been the wider use of so-called protease inhibitors, a drug treatment that, combined with previous treatments such as the well-known AZT, has dramatically increased the condition for people with AIDS and HIV, the virus that leads to the fatal disease.

However, the drug treatment alone can cost up to $15,000 a year for one patient, putting a squeeze on limited government funding to support AIDS-related health care.

AIDS Action said $168 million a year more was needed in federal AIDS-treatment funding, which would nearly double the current levels. And with more people surviving longer periods, more treatment was needed, adding more strain to the system.

"What is good news for patients is bad news for medical providers," said Victoria Sharp, a New York doctor who is chief of the AIDS center at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital.

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