AEGiS-UPI: The poorest more likely to die from AIDS

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The poorest more likely to die from AIDS

United Press International - November 1, 2005

LOS ANGELES - HIV-infected people of low socioeconomic status are more likely to die from AIDS more quickly than their wealthier counterparts, California researchers say.

Even though medical treatments have improved, HIV infections are increasing most rapidly among people on the lowest end of the economic ladder, said University of California-Los Angeles researcher William Cunningham.

"There's still reason for alarm because the groups that are most likely to get infected are less likely to get treatment and are dying at much higher rates," Cunningham said. "We ... recommend more resources being put toward those groups."

He said poor people generally use hospital and emergency services more and are less likely to have private health insurance, Medicaid or Medicare.

"So they have an unfavorable pattern of services use -- they had more of the bad stuff and less of the good stuff," Cunningham said.

The study was published in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.

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