Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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. - Thursday September 11 11:07 AM EDT
Mike Cooper
In a wide-ranging analysis of preliminary birth and death statistics from 1996, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the age-adjusted death rate from AIDS dropped from 15.6 deaths per 100,000 population in 1995 to 11.6 in 1996.
AIDS is no longer the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 25 and 44, the agency said.
"The 26 percent decline in deaths from HIV/AIDS in a single year reported by CDC today is truly a remarkable achievement," Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala said in a statement.
Life expectancy reached an all-time high of 76.1 years in 1996, up from 75.8 in 1995, the CDC said. Record-high life expectancies were reached for white and black males and for black females.
Age-adjusted homicide and suicide rates fell in 1996, but murders and suicides remained the second and third leading causes of death, respectively, among young people between the ages of 15 and 24.
The homicide rate dropped about 11 percent to 8.4 murders per 100,000 population in 1996. The suicide rate fell about four percent last year to 10.8 per 100,000.
Infant mortality fell to 7.2 deaths per 1,000 live births last year. The rate among whites fell to 6.0 per 1,000, while the black rate fell to 14.2.
The teen birth rate dropped four percent in 1996 and has declined 12 percent since 1991. "It has dropped steadily every year during that period," Stephanie Ventura, a statistician for the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics said.
The CDC said the proportion of teen-age women having sex has leveled off, and teen-agers who are sexually active are increasingly using condoms.
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