Subject: Drug-Linked Cases Of AIDS Reported In U. S. Rose in '88
Date: Published: 3/20/89 (48 lines)
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    Drug-Linked Cases
    Of AIDS Reported
    In U. S. Rose in '88

    ATLANTA (AP) -- The number of drug-related AIDS cases
 reported in the U. S. nearly doubled last year, according to
 federal health officials.
    The national Centers for Disease Control said 10,747, or
 33%, of the 32,311 AIDS cases reported in the U. S. and its
 territories in 1988 were drug-related:  occurring among
 intravenous drug users, their sex partners or children born
 to women in either of those groups.
    That's up from about 27% a year earlier, when drug-related
 cases accounted for 5,747 of the 21,356 U. S. AIDS cases
 reported, said Dr. James Buehler, a CDC AIDS specialist.
    The Atlanta-based CDC noted that AIDS reporting -- 
 including the drug-related cases -- surged after mid-1987,
 when the agency adopted a new definition for AIDS that counts
 more cases in their early stages.
    That statistical adjustment is probably responsible for
 some of the increase, but there apparently was also an actual
 increase in drug-related cases, Dr. Buehler said.
    The rate of drug-related AIDS cases "continues to be
 higher for blacks and Hispanics than for whites," the CDC
 said in its weekly report.  And although rates "varied widely
 by area," 55% of the nation's drug-related AIDS cases last
 year occurred in the Northeast -- New England and the Middle
 Atlantic states -- where only 20 percent of the U. S. 
 population lives.
    Drug-related AIDS cases made up 16% of all cases in
 whites, 52% in blacks and 56% in Hispanics, the CDC said.  For
 all three of those racial-ethnic groups, the drug-related
 AIDS rate was highest in the Northeast.
    Overall, homosexual and bisexual males continue to make up
 the largest group of AIDS victims in the U. S. Through Feb. 
 20, a total of 87,188 cases had been reported, including
 52,758 among gay or bisexual men; 17,226 among intravenous
 drug abusers and 6,140 among gay males who were also
 intravenous drug abusers.

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