County Records 114 More AIDS Cases
An additional 114 AIDS cases were diagnosed in Los Angeles County in September, county health officials said Tuesday.
“Little by little, the number of monthly cases is going up,” said Dr. Martin Finn, AIDS program medical director for the county Department of Health Services. “We reach a plateau for three to four months and then (the number of cases) goes up by 15 to 20.”
The new cases bring the total number of victims of acquired immune deficiency syndrome in the county to 2,251, of whom 1,309 have died. Ninety-eight cases were confirmed in August and 90 in July.
The monthly case rate has roughly doubled over the last year, Finn said.
Of the 114 new cases, 103 are homosexual or bisexual men and three are intravenous drug users, including one woman. Three men were infected by contaminated blood transfusions and one child was infected by a parent who had the virus that causes the disease. In the other four cases, the risk group could not be determined.
In addition, the county has a backlog of 140 possible cases that are still under investigation. The size of the backlog has remained relatively constant for several months, according to Finn.
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