Heterosexual transmission accounts for the fastest growing risk group in the United States
AIDS cases attributed to heterosexual transmission increased from 3% of all cumulative AIDS cases among women in 1983 and 1984 to 39% as of December 31, 2002.(6) Regions with the highest rates in women correspond to those in which seroprevalence is highest in male IDUs.(7)
The true incidence of heterosexually transmitted cases is probably even higher, but cases are sometimes unrecognized owing to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reporting hierarchy. For example, if a woman had heterosexual contact multiple times and injected intravenous drugs once, she is categorized as having injection drug use as the source of her infection. Of the 126,880 cases ever classified as "risk not reported or identified" through June of 2000, (the last year for reporting on this type of information), 59,692 have been reclassified. Of this group, 15,300 are women, and 10,404 (68%) of them have been reclassified as transmission through heterosexual contact.( As recently as 2002, 7,532 (66%) of the total 11,279 adult women diagnosed with AIDS were classified as either "risk not reported or identified" (4,029 [36%]) or as "transmission secondary to heterosexual contact with a HIV-infected person, risk not specified" (3,502 [31%]).(6)
It is estimated that if information were to be obtained on this latter group of 3,502 that at least 68% would be reclassified as heterosexual transmission.
http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/InSite?page=kb-03-01-12#S1.1X





Bookmarks