AIDS DEATHS IN NATION, L.A. TUMBLE; TREATMENTS CITED.Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Services AIDS deaths across the United States dropped a stunning 44 percent in the first half of last year, showing the power of new treatments to control the disease, federal officials said Monday. And in Los Angeles, the number of AIDS-related deaths declined 56 percent, from 1,337 in the first six months of 1996 to just 586 deaths for the same period in 1997, according to the county Department of Health Services Department of Health Services may refer to:
``The decline in AIDS deaths is excellent news,'' said John Schunhoff, interim director of operations for the Public Health division of DHS DHS Department of Homeland Security (USA) DHS Department of Human Services DHS Department of Health Services DHS Demographic and Health Surveys DHS Dirhams (Morocco national currency) . However, Schunhoff and other public health officials said they are concerned people will become lax about safe sex and other precautions against HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. infection. ``Although the number of deaths is going down the number people who have HIV is going up. The HIV epidemic is nowhere near over,'' Schunhoff said. With more people living longer with the disease, health providers have to give drugs to more people. ``It becomes a significant challenge for a service provider like APLA APLA AIDS Project Los Angeles (California) APLA Asia Pacific and Latin America APLA Atlantic Provinces Library Association APLA Antiphospholipid Antibody (syndrome) because we need to slice the loaf even thinner to accommodate more people,'' said Lee Klosinsky, director of education for AIDS Project Los Angeles AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of people affected by HIV disease, reducing the incidence of HIV infection, and advocating for fair and effective HIV-related public policy. . Klosinsky said APLA, which treats about 6,600 people with HIV symptoms and full-blown AIDS, saw a 59 percent decrease in the mortality rate of its clients during the first six months of 1997. Doctors have known almost since they began widely prescribing potent three-drug combinations two years ago that fewer people with AIDS The People With AIDS (PWA) Self-Empowerment Movement was a movement of those diagnosed with AIDS and grew out of San Francisco. The PWA Self-Empowerment Movement believes that those diagnosed as having AIDS should "take charge of their own life, illness, and care, and to minimize were dying, but even the experts seem surprised by the scope of their success. ``We can't see the end of the epidemic, but it's the beginning of a new era,'' said Dr. Kevin DeCock of the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), agency of the U.S. Public Health Service since 1973, with headquarters in Atlanta; it was established in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center. in Atlanta. The latest evidence of this change came Monday when CDC See Control Data, century date change and Back Orifice. CDC - Control Data Corporation officials presented new data at the Fifth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. Deaths from AIDS peaked in 1994 and 1995, then nosed downward in 1996. Last year, that fall accelerated. ``Treatment is having a marked, dramatic impact on AIDS mortality,'' said the CDC's Dr. Patricia Fleming. According to the CDC, 12,040 Americans died of AIDS in the first half of 1997, compared with 21,460 in the first half of 1996. The total nationwide figures for last year will not be tallied until July. However, they are already in for New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. , and they show an even more impressive change. Experts from the city's Department of Health reported that AIDS deaths fell there 48 percent in 1997. This comes on top of a 29 percent decline in New York AIDS deaths in 1995. The New York data show that both men and women and people of all races are benefiting from the lifesaving breakthroughs in AIDS treatment. Dr. Mary Ann Chiasson, of the New York City health department said there was not a big decline in the death rate for women a year ago. ``The good news is this year, they are beginning to catch up,'' she said. Sixteen percent of the nation's AIDS cases are in New York City. About 100,000 New Yorkers have had AIDS, and 65,000 have died of the disease. |
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