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AIDS
Since the earliest days of the epidemic, most Americans have tried to
convince themselves that AIDS is almost exclusively a disease of homosexual
men. For just as long, medical professionals have known otherwise. But,
because HIV may lie in wait undetected for as long as a decade, we've
had few solid numbers to back us up.
With the release of statistics from the Centers for Disease Control earlier
this year, that's finally starting to change. We can see what AIDS has
done and make some solid predictions about where it's going:
-
More than 500,000 Americans have been reported with AIDS,
and 300,000 have died
of AIDS-related illness.
- The
number of new cases of AIDS is increasing at between 3 and
5 percent per year—alarming
but much lower than in the early '80s.
- About
40,000 people are infected with HIV each year—roughly
as many as die of AIDS-related illness.
- Between
1981 and 1987, 65 percent of new AIDS cases were
the result of homosexual contact between men; between
1993 and 1995, that proportion
was down to 45 percent.
- Between
1981 and 1987, 3 percent of new AIDS cases were the result of heterosexual
contact; between
1993
and 1995,
the proportion was
up to
10 percent.
- Intravenous
drug use as a cause of HIV infection has increased from 17 percent
of cases between 1981
and 1987
to 27 percent
between 1993
and
1995.
- HIV-related
illness has become the leading cause of death among young people
(25- to 44-years-old);
HIV-related
deaths
in this group increased
from 28,100 in 1993 to 30,300 in 1994.
- In
1994, AIDS was responsible for a third of all deaths in young African
American men.
- Although
the rate of new AIDS cases has declined in white homosexual and
bisexual men, it has
increased in
young
African American and Hispanic
homosexual and bisexual men.
- In
cities such as New York and San Francisco, 9 or more percent of
young homosexual
and bisexual
men are
HIV positive.
What's
my take on all of this? Clearly, having unprotected sex with another
man is the riskiest thing you can do. But unprotected sex with a woman
is far from safe—and becoming less so.
Maybe
what bothers me most about these numbers, though, is the trend
in young people—especially
minority men. We older guys seem to have gotten the message, but we're
not passing it along effectively
to our sons. Talk
to him now, so you can talk to him later!
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