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New AIDS cases drop for the first time in U.S.
In this story: September 18, 1997
Web posted at: 9:15 p.m. EDT (0115 GMT)ATLANTA (CNN) -- The number of new AIDS cases in the United States dropped 6 percent last year from the year before, the first decline in the history of the epidemic, according to federal health officials.
"We are seeing for the first time in this epidemic a substantial decline in AIDS incidence," said Patricia Fleming, the chief of HIV/AIDS reporting and analysis at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "That's very good news."
The CDC said the number of new AIDS cases reported among teen-agers and adults fell to 56,730 in 1996 from 60,620 in 1995. The number of new AIDS cases rose an average of 2 percent a year between 1992 and 1995.
CNN's Dr. Steve Salvatore reports.
New AIDS cases in 1996 fell 13 percent among whites and 5 percent among Hispanics, but was little changed among blacks, the CDC said. On a regional basis, the drop was 12 percent in the West, 10 percent in the Midwest, and 8 percent in the Northeast. In the South, AIDS cases dropped only 1 percent.
"Our efforts in prevention and treatment are allowing more people to live free of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) while we are extending the healthy lives of those who are infected," Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala said in a statement released Thursday.
People with AIDS also living longer
"The fact that we saw a precipitous decline in 1996 of about 6 percent in AIDS incidents and 23 percent in deaths (as reported last week)," said Fleming "is associated with the availability of newly effective anti-viral therapies, including protease inhibitors."
The number of people living with AIDS rose to 235,470 in 1996, an 11 percent increase from a year earlier.
"We have a growing population of people living with AIDS," Fleming said. "That means that we're going to need to continue to increase resources for treatment for those people."
However there were some troubling signs in what was largely a promising report.
Although new AIDS cases declined 15 percent among white gay and bisexual men in 1996, AIDS among heterosexuals rose 11 percent among men and 7 percent among women.
In the 1980s and part of the 1990s, AIDS spread among women primarily through the sharing of needles. But by 1993, sex with infected men overtook drug use as the leading cause of infection among women.
The biggest percentage increases of those infected through heterosexual contact occurred among blacks and Hispanics, the CDC said. The increase in new AIDS cases among black men was 19 percent, while Hispanic men had a 13 percent increase and black women a 12 percent increase.
People of color, women at risk
"We know that the gay community has had a relatively thorough saturation of candid information on HIV prevention," said Daniel Zingale, executive director of AIDS Action, an advocacy group. "Women and people of color are not getting the same level of unvarnished HIV information."
The greatest drops were among homosexual men, and homosexual men who inject drugs -- 11 percent and 15 percent, respectively. New cases also declined among heterosexual men and women who inject drugs.
The CDC estimated that of the 235,470 people with AIDS still living in 1996, homosexual men accounted for almost half, followed by heterosexual men who inject drugs and women infected through sex with men.
The CDC reported last week that deaths from AIDS fell by nearly one-fourth in 1996, and that AIDS is no longer the leading cause of death among people between the ages of 25 and 44.
"People are living longer following an AIDS diagnosis," Fleming said, "and it also indicates that people are living longer with HIV and not progressing to AIDS."
Correspondent Dr. Steve Salvatore, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Related sites:
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- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Home Page
- CDC - Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP) Home Page
- DHAP Slides/Graphics - AIDS Surveillance - General Epidemiology
- DHAP Slides/Graphics - AIDS Surveillance by Race/Ethnicity
- DHAP Slides/Graphics - AIDS Surveillance in Adolescents
- DHAP Slides/Graphics - AIDS Surveillance in Women
- DHAP Slides/Graphics - Pediatric AIDS Surveillance
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