Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, September 1, 1999
National statistics released this week at a National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta showed that 17,047 AIDS patients died last year, 20 percent fewer than in 1997.
Compared to a 42 percent drop the previous year, the new figures may signal an ominous sense of complacency among those most at risk, gay and bisexual men, intravenous drug users and their sexual partners.
Scientists say the plummeting death rates recorded after the introduction of protease inhibitors and other new medicines a few years ago are now leveling off.
Virus sleuths at the Centers for Disease Control say 94 percent of HIV-infected people in the United States are already using the new drug therapies, and most of the benefits have been realized. That may partially account for the plateau in mortality rates.
In other cases, the new medications don't work or the drugs are not taken properly or HIV-infected people simply do not know they have the virus.
There are about 40,000 new HIV infections a year in the United States, a serious epidemic but a big improvement over the plague years of the 1980s, when there were 150,000 cases a year.
Researchers fear the success of new drugs has reduced the fear of AIDS and lulled some into dangerously cavalier sexual behavior.
In San Francisco, a city long in the vanguard of the AIDS war, Public Health Director Mitch Katz reports ``gay men are having more unsafe sex.''
As the search for new medicines and an AIDS vaccine continues, ultimate AIDS prevention responsibility falls to those who are engaging in risky behavior.
Katz and others urge more and frequent HIV testing for people at risk. That is a constant message and a sensible way to catch and treat the disease early and to help reduce infections and extend lives.
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