AIDS: epidemiologic features

Abstract

At the end of October 1988, more than 75,000 adults and more than 1000 children had been reported with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS); more than half of those diagnosed have died. Most adult cases fall into specific risk categories: homosexual and bisexual men, intravenous drug abusers, hemophiliacs and transfusion recipients, and heterosexual partners of infected persons. These categories are related to the known transmission routes of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In children, the risk groups are different; most cases represent perinatal transmission of HIV. Black and Hispanic persons are disproportionately affected by AIDS in the United States and make up almost 40% of all reported cases. In 1986, AIDS was the eighth leading cause of premature death in this country, and if current trends continue, it will become the second by 1992. Although HIV infection rates in "risk group" members have been extensively studied, much less is known about infection rates in persons outside these groups. A variety of surveys are under way to monitor the spread of HIV. The epidemiologic puzzle of Kaposi's sarcoma is considered, as well as reasons for the decrease in it as a proportion of all AIDS cases.