Science / Medicine : AIDS Increases Among Women

As many as 80,000 American women of childbearing age may be infected with the AIDS virus, according to a new study published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Epidemiologist Marta Gwinn of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said as many as 2,100 babies could be born infected each year in the United States.

The study provides further proof of a steady rise in AIDS among women and infants, particularly in cities where intravenous drug use is common. “This is simply more striking evidence that HIV is a firmly established endemic disease in our society,” said Dr. Richard Chaisson, director of AIDS Services at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore.

AIDS is expected this year to become one of the five leading causes of death in women.

Gwinn and government colleagues studied blood test results from more than 1.8 million infants born from 1988 to 1990 in 38 states and Washington, D.C. They found that 2,382 carried antibodies to the virus, indicating that their mothers were infected. Working backward from that figure, they concluded that as many as 80,000 women in the country could be infected with the virus.