San Francisco Chronicle - The Voice of the West, 901 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94119; - Thursday January 4, 1990 By: Edition: FINAL Section: NEWS Page: A5 Word Count: 790

David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor

An article published in The Chronicle on January 4 stated that the number of new AIDS infections in San Francisco declined last year. The 1989 figures, however, included only the reports through November. Since reports of all new infection cases for the entire year are not complete, the total of new infections for 1989 is not expected to decline at all, according to the city's AIDS surveillance office.

The article also reported that tests of blood donated at the Irwin Memorial Blood Bank show that barely one-tenth of 1 percent of the donations are infected with the AIDS virus. The number of antibody-positive donations is actually one one-hundredth of 1 percent, and all such donations are discarded immediately and destroyed.

TEXT:

A new study among limited groups of San Franciscans confirms that sexually active men who are at the highest risk for exposure to the AIDS virus are still testing positive for infection at an alarming rate, health officials reported yesterday.

A survey conducted among women at the city's family planning clinics, however, offers reassuring evidence that their rate of infection -- and that of their male partners -- remains extremely low.

The report came from Dr. George W. Rutherford, director of the city health department's AIDS office, and Dr. George F. Lemp, the epidemiologist who heads the office's surveillance branch.

Since last February, half the men at the city clinic for sexually transmitted diseases who identified themselves as homosexual or bisexual have tested positive for HIV infection. The infection rate was nearly 70 percent among the gay and bisexual men at the clinic who use drugs intravenously.

Previous studies of gay men in San Francisco have shown an HIV infection rate of about 50 percent, Lemp said.

LOW RATE FOR WOMEN

Among women attending the clinic for sexually transmitted diseases, the infection rate for the AIDS virus was far lower: an estimated 9 percent for intravenous drug users, although that statistic was subject to a wide margin of error, Lemp cautioned.

"While the figures for infection by the AIDS virus among men at the clinic are not surprising," Lemp said in an interview, "they are disconcerting because they show that people who have a high rate of infection are still practicing unsafe sex."

The new survey at city family planning clinics, although limited, confirms that HIV infection has not spread among the general population of women who attend those clinics, Lemp said. The existence of a small number of cases among women who say they are intravenous drug users or whose sex partners are at risk for AIDS adds evidence that the HIV infection rate is primarily confined to people in high-risk groups and their partners, Lemp said.

FEDERAL PROGRAM

As part of a major new federal program to track the spread of infection from HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, local health officials throughout the country have begun to survey special population groups within their communities. In San Francisco, AIDS officials have started by conducting surveys and testing people who seek treatment at the city's clinic for sexually transmitted diseases and women who attend the city's family planning clinics.

Data also are coming from tests of new applicants for military service and from blood samples at the Irwin Memorial Blood Bank, where the tiny number of donations that prove to be infected are immediately destroyed.

In a final year-end report on the overall toll of AIDS in San Francisco, the health department counted 7,686 cases and 5,074 deaths since the epidemic was first detected in June 1981. The number of newly diagnosed cases, however, appears to be declining somewhat after peaking at 1,559 cases in 1987. It dipped to 1,545 in 1988 and dropped more sharply to l,364 last year. Nearly 85 percent of the cases continue to be diagnosed among homosexual and bisexual males.

The new series of federally sponsored studies that looks at military recruit applicants shows only 20 cases of HIV infection among 3,747 applicants since 1985 -- a "not surprising" rate of only 0.5 percent for this "self-selected group," Lemp said.

BLOOD BANKS

Tests of blood donated at the Irwin Memorial Blood Bank show that the extremely small number of infected donations has been declining steadily each year since 1986 and is now barely one-tenth of 1 percent. All blood that tests positive for the presence of antibodies to HIV is immediately discarded and destroyed.

In Atlanta yesterday, the national Centers for Disease Control that the number of new AIDS cases expected in the next three years is at least 10 percent fewer than previously estimated. The report predicted that 179,000 to 208,000 new cases will be reported from now through the end of 1992.

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 1990. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

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