11.7% of Female Prostitutes in Study Found to Have AIDS Virus

A federally sponsored study of 835 female prostitutes in seven geographic areas of the country indicates that 98--or 11.7%--are infected with the AIDS virus, public health officials said Thursday.

But researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control, which released the data, emphasized that the extent of infection in prostitutes varies widely among the cities studied and seems to parallel the incidence of AIDS in those regions. Further, they said, half of the prostitutes interviewed had a history of intravenous drug use, a major AIDS risk factor.

“Persons who continue to engage in prostitution remain at risk for acquiring and transmitting” the AIDS virus, the CDC said.

The test determines whether an individual has been exposed to the virus that causes AIDS, not whether the person will contract the deadly disease. However, a person who tests positive is presumed to be infected and infectious to others.

Areas of Highest Infection

The areas of highest viral infection were Miami and three cities in northern New Jersey: Newark, Jersey City and Paterson, areas that also have a high rate of AIDS cases, most associated with intravenous drug use, the CDC said. In southern Nevada, where only one woman has been reported with AIDS, none of the 34 prostitutes tested was positive, the agency said.

Of the 56 prostitutes tested in the New Jersey cities, 32--or 57.1%--were positive. As of March 10 in those cities, there had been a total of 143 AIDS cases among women, or 526.2 per million population. In Miami, 47 of the 252 prostitutes tested--18.7%--were infected, compared with 100 AIDS cases among women, or 145.3 cases per million population.

In Los Angeles, where intravenous drug abuse is less of a risk factor for AIDS than in other regions, eight of 184 prostitutes--4.3%--were positive, compared with the total of 26 AIDS cases among women, or 21.7 per million population. In San Francisco, where the AIDS cases are concentrated among homosexual men, nine of 146 prostitutes, or 6.2%, were positive. There have been 21 AIDS cases among women in San Francisco, or 71.9 cases per million.

Other Cities Studied

The other cities studied were Atlanta, where one in 92 prostitutes, or 1.1%, was positive, and Colorado Springs, Colo., where one in 71--1.4%--was positive. Atlanta has had eight cases of AIDS among women, or 12.5 per million, while Colorado Springs has had only one.

The CDC also said that infection among black and Latino prostitutes in the seven regions studied was higher than among whites, which is also the situation with rates of the disease in the areas’ general populations.

As of March 23, 2,227 cases of AIDS had been reported among women nationwide.

The CDC said that “multiple approaches” were required to stop the spread of AIDS infection among prostitutes and to their sexual partners, including counseling and voluntary antibody testing programs, as well as control measures by local public health and law enforcement agencies and the involvement of social service organizations.

For example, the CDC said, since March, 1986, the Nevada Board of Health has required prostitutes in county-licensed brothels to be tested for AIDS antibodies as a condition for employment and monthly thereafter.

Since October, Florida has required convicted prostitutes to be tested for all sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS infection, the CDC said.