Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - The Voice of the West, 901 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94119 - 16 Feb 1996, p.A-1
David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
The agency said AIDS deaths rose by at least 9 percent from 1993 to 1994 -- the most recent years for which figures are available. The 1994 death toll may have reached 55,000 to 60,000, according to Dr. John Ward, chief of the CDC's AIDS surveillance branch.
The official 1994 death toll based on death certificates from all 50 states is 42,000. But that does not include thousands of AIDS deaths recorded under other causes, Ward said.
For Americans ages 25 to 44, AIDS caused 32 percent of all deaths among black men, 22 percent among black women, 20 percent among white men, and 6 percent among white women, the CDC report said.
In the same age group, the AIDS death rate per 100,000 rose 28 percent to 51.2 for black women; 13 percent to 177.9 for black men; and was relatively unchanged at 47.2 for white men. Among young white women -- even though the numbers were small -- the death rate rose by nearly one-third, to 5.7 per 100,000, the CDC figures showed.
"It's sobering to me that almost one out of every three black men who die in this young age group die of HIV, an illness that wasn't even recognized 15 to 16 years ago," said Ward.
For the second year in a row, AIDS was the leading cause of death among Americans 25 to 44 years old, said the CDC report. Next on the list are accidental injuries, heart disease, cancer, suicide and homicide.
AIDS led all causes of death among white men ages 25 to 44, and it was the leading cause of death among black women in that age group for the second year in a row. It continued as the leading cause of deaths among black men in the 25-44 age group, where AIDS has played the same deadly role every year since 1991.
In San Francisco, a spokesman for the the Health Department's AIDS office said yesterday that its surveillance records show roughly the same trends as the national report -- with one significant exception.
The AIDS epidemic is so widespread in San Francisco, he said, that AIDS is now the city's leading cause of death among people of any age -- not just those between ages 25 and 44. A total of 15,087 deaths from AIDS have been recorded in San Francisco since the epidemic erupted 15 years ago, and 1,552 people died in 1994. The overall death rate from AIDS among younger Americans has been rising spectacularly for a full decade, according to the CDC, and now stands at just about 60 per 100,000 population, or more than double the rate of only six years ago.
Even more tragic, Ward's report noted, the increasing AIDS death rate among young Americans will have a severe impact on the care of their children. An estimated 80,000 women who were infected with HIV were alive in 1992, and when most of them die later in this decade, they will leave 125,000 to 150,000 children behind, the report noted.
AIDS DEATHS
Black men are killed by AIDS at a higher rate than other Americans. Rates for ages 25 to 44:
- Black men Up 13 percent - Black women Up 28 percent - White men Minimal change - White women Up 30 percent
Source: Centers for Disease Control ASSOCIATED
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