March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

New definition of AIDS causes 5-fold increase in Maine’s case count

The number of new AIDS cases in Maine for January jumped 500 percent, but it wasn’t unexpected.

The major reason for the increase, from four cases in December to 26 last month, was the expanded definition of acquired immune deficiency syndrome issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. As of Jan. 1, more infections and ailments are now included in the definition of AIDS.

What may be surprising is the location of those new cases. The northern and eastern counties of the state accounted for 10 of the new cases, almost as many as were diagnosed in more-populated southern Maine.

Twenty-three of the new AIDS diagnoses were men. The largest group were men in their 30s, although new cases were also found in men in their 20s, 40s and older. Of the three women diagnosed with AIDS, two were in their 30s, and the other was a teen-ager.

The risk factor most often cited, according to the Division of Disease Control in Augusta, was homosexual or bisexual activity. New cases also were found among heterosexuals and users of injected drugs. One person had a blood disorder, and another may have become infected through a blood transfusion.

The division also has released statistics for the entire year 1992 on testing for the human immunodeficiency virus in Maine.

Women accounted for a greater percentage of the positive HIV tests in Maine last year. Seventeen percent this past year were women, compared to only 10 percent in 1991.

There also was one new positive test on a child under age 5 who acquired HIV from its mother, said Dawne Rekas, coordinator for HIV counseling and testing at the Bureau of Health. “We’re seeing an increase in women testing positive, and unfortunately, they’re women of child-bearing age,” she said.

In Maine, as around the country, testing for HIV increased by more than 50 percent in 1992. Some 16,000 tests were done in the state last year, although it is not known how many of those may have been duplicate tests because positive tests are reported to the Bureau of Health without name.

The increase in testing is considered to have been prompted by the announcement of basketball star Magic Johnson in November 1991 that he is HIV-positive, according to Rekas.

The number of positive tests for 1992 was down slightly from 1991. The decline does not necessarily mean that fewer people are becoming infected, Rekas said, but rather that it is a “normal fluctuation” seen in Maine.

One inference can be drawn from the high percentage of negative tests, Rekas said. “One thing that means is the people at highest risk for HIV were not tested; that’s a pretty obvious conclusion.”

It also may indicate that many of those tested volunteered not because of risky behavior, but because their doctors encouraged it, she said. There may have been “health-care providers performing more tests on patients for self-protection reasons.”

Those with high-risk behaviors such as unprotected sex or using injected drugs may not be getting tested because they’re afraid of the results, she said, “or maybe they fear discrimination.”

Another concern of Rekas is chlamydia, a bacterial sexually transmitted disease in women and men that often has no symptoms.

What really worries Rekas is that “the largest group affected were 15- to 19-year-olds,” she said. That group accounted for more than one-third of the 2,015 cases in Maine last year. Chlamydia is easily treated with antibiotics, she said, but can cause pelvic inflammatory disease and sterility if not treated. A patient’s partner needs to be treated as well. Because chlamydia is asymptomatic, people are often unaware that they have it.

Family Planning branches offer to screen their patients for chlamydia, Rekas said, as do the sexually transmitted disease clinics. “If you’re sexually active and between 15 and 19, you should be screened for it,” she said.

Rates of gonorrhea and syphilis in Maine are generally low, she said, although there has been a definite increase in gonorrhea among homosexual men in the Portland area.

As research continues on the transmission of the AIDS virus, a report from Florida State University now questions the genetic evidence used to assert that a Florida dentist infected five of his patients.

Ronald DeBry said Wednesday that the CDC report last May may have overstated the evidence. A new analytical technique yielded data consistent with the patients being infected either by the doctor or by some other means.


Have feedback? Want to know more? Send us ideas for follow-up stories.

comments for this post are closed

You may also like