Subject: PEOPLE PATTERNS 
Date: Published: 2/7/89 (36 lines)
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    PEOPLE PATTERNS
    ----   
    Compiled by the staff of American Demographics magazine

[72 lines irrelevant to AIDS have been removed. -- sysop]

    Survey About AIDS
    Has Mixed Findings
    FOR THE PAST year, the National Center for Health
 Statistics has been surveying Americans on their knowledge of
 and attitudes toward acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
    The surveys found that most people are aware that AIDS can
 be transmitted by sex or sharing needles for intravenous drug
 use, and that pregnant women can pass the virus to their
 babies.
    But ignorance about other means of transmission persists.
 Over half of Americans think that you may be able to get AIDS
 by kissing someone who has the disease, which doctors say
 isn't true.  A survey last fall found that 24% erroneously
 believe the virus is likely to be transmitted by mosquitoes
 or other insects.  And 29% have the impression that AIDS can
 be contracted by being coughed on or sneezed on by someone
 who has the disease, which doctors say is impossible.
    Of those surveyed, 82% say they think there is no chance
 that they already carry the virus believed to cause AIDS, and
 75% say there is no chance they will ever get it.  Only 4% say
 they don't know what their chances are of getting AIDS. 

[This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the 
personal and non-commercial use of callers to this bbs, in the 
hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering 
from the disease and others who are seeking to help them.]