Subject: AIDS Deaths Totaled 13,000 in '87 in U. S. 
Date: Published: 8/16/88 50 lines
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    AIDS Deaths Totaled
    13,000 in '87 in U. S.,
    No.  15 Fatality Rank

    WASHINGTON (AP) -- AIDS claimed about 13,000 lives in the
 U. S. last year, a toll that would have ranked it 15th among
 all causes of death, according to the first annual government
 statistical summary to include the disease.
    Acquired immune deficiency syndrome was added to the
 annual summary of disease starting in 1987, the National
 Center for Health Statistics reported.
    The agency estimated that between 12,450 and 13,820
 Americans died of AIDS last year.  While AIDS wasn't
 officially added to the overall rankings of causes of death,
 that total would have put in 15th place, ahead of birth
 defects, which claimed 12,130 lives.
    For statistical purposes, AIDS has been listed in the
 category of "other infectious and parasitic diseases."
    The report said 65% of those with AIDS were white males
 and 25% black males.  White and black females each made up
 between 4% and 5% of the total.
    The age groups most heavily affected were 25 to 34, and 35
 to 44, the study added.
    AIDS is a fatal disease that attacks the body's immune
 system, rendering it incapable of resisting other diseases
 and infections.  The disease is spread most often through
 sexual contact, needles or syringes shared by drug abusers,
 infected blood or blood products, and from infected pregnant
 women to their offspring.
    The predominant groups of AIDS patients have been
 homosexual men and intravenous drug abusers.  Health officials
 estimate that heterosexual contact is responsible for 4% of
 cases and that between one million and 1.5 million Americans
    A person who tests positive for antibodies to the AIDS
 virus, an indication of exposure, has a 20% to 30% chance of
 developing AIDS over a five-year period, according to the
 federal Centers for Disease Control.
    As of Aug. 8, AIDS had been diagnosed in 70,208 Americans,
 of whom more than half, or 39,620, have died since June 1,
 1981, according to the Centers for Disease Control.  No one is
 known to have recovered from AIDS. 

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