Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International; Thursday February 5 11:09 AM EST
The Illinois Department of Public Health today said the 1,863 people who developed AIDS last year were a 15 percent drop from the 2,185 who contracted the deadly virus during 1996.
New AIDS cases reported to the state have not been at such a low level since 1991, when 1,616 cases were reported.
Public Health Director John Lumpkin noted new drug combinations have helped to delay the number of instances where people infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus contract AIDS.
"But it is indisputable that HIV/AIDS remains a deadly disease for which there is no vaccine or cure," Lumpkin said.
Of the 1,863 new cases, 1,524 were among men. Of those, 894 think they contracted the disease through homosexual sex, while another 384 say they may have caught it through infected needles through drug use.
Another 138 men say they contracted the virus through heterosexual sex. Among the 339 women who contracted the virus, 139 say they contracted the virus through infected needles in drug use _ making that the most common method of transmission among women.
Geographically, 1,284 of the cases were reported in Chicago, while another 167 were in the suburbs of Cook County.
The five suburban collar counties had 147 new cases of AIDS, while rural Illinois accounted for 265 new cases.
Through Dec. 31, 1997, 12,943 Illinois residents had died from complications related to HIV or AIDS since the state began keeping track of the disease. During 1997, HIV infection was the eleventh leding cause of deaths, with 1,186. It was the fourth leading cause of death for people ages 25 to 49, with 836.
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