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 18 11:44 PM EDT
Mike Cooper
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the number of new AIDS cases reported among teenagers and adults fell to 56,730 in 1996 from 60,620 in 1995. The number of new AIDS cases rose an average of 2 percent a year between 1992 and 1995.
"The 1996 AIDS surveillance data showed very good news," said Dr. Patricia Fleming, chief of the CDC's HIV/AIDS reporting and analysis section.
Between 1995 and 1996, the number of new AIDS cases fell 13 percent among whites, 5 percent among Hispanics and was little changed among blacks.
Newly-diagnosed AIDS cases declined 12 percent in the West, 10 percent in the Midwest, and 8 percent in the Northeast. They fell only 1 percent in the South, the CDC said.
"Our efforts in prevention and treatment are allowing more people to live free of HIV while we are extending the healthy lives of those who are infected," Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala said in a statement.
New AIDS cases declined 15 percent among white gay and bisexual men. However, the incidence of AIDS among heterosexuals rose in 1996, increasing 11 percent among men and 7 percent among women, the CDC said.
The biggest percentage increases occurred among blacks and Hispanics infected through heterosexual contact, the agency said. Of those infected in this way, there was a 19 percent increase in new AIDS cases among black men, a 13 percent increase among Hispanic men and a 12 percent increase among black women.
The CDC said combination drug therapies, including protease inhibitors, are delaying the onset of AIDS among people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and are helping people who have developed AIDS to live longer.
As a result, the number of people living with AIDS rose to 235,470 in 1996, an 11 percent increase from a year earlier.
"We have a growing population of people living with AIDS," Fleming said. "That means that we're going to need to continue to increase resources for treatment for those people."
The CDC reported last week that deaths from AIDS fell by one-fourth in 1996. It said the disease was no longer the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 25 and 44.
"People are living longer following an AIDS diagnosis and it also indicates that people are living longer with HIV and not progressing to AIDS," Fleming said.
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