Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 29, 1990 TAG: 9007290095
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LONDON LENGTH: Medium
The report, published in the London-based journal The Lancet, said AIDS has become the leading cause of death for women ages 20 to 40 in many places, including New York City and central African cities.
"In these cities, infant and child mortality could be as much as 30 percent greater than what would otherwise have been expected," the report said, which cited figures from the World Health Organization.
"During the 1990s, not only can hundreds of thousands of pediatric AIDS cases be expected, but also more than a million uninfected children will be orphaned because their HIV-infected mothers and fathers will have died from AIDS."
The HIV virus causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome, a disease that attacks the body's immune system and leaves victims susceptible to a wide variety of infections and cancers. There is no known cure.
AIDS is most often transmitted through sexual contact. Other means of transmission include transfusions of tainted blood or blood products, and the sharing of contaminated hypodermic needles or syringes by drug abusers. AIDS can also be passed from mother to child at or before birth.
The report in Lancet said Geneva-based WHO estimates that during the 1980s, there were about 500,000 cases of AIDS in women and children.
"During the 1990s, WHO estimates that the pandemic will kill an additional 3 million or more women and children worldwide," the report said.
The report in The Lancet was written by WHO researcher James Chin. He said the estimates cited had been developed by WHO's Global Program on AIDS.
Chin's report gave no estimate of AIDS deaths among males in the 1990s.
WHO last year estimated that a total of 6 million people were likely to have AIDS worldwide by the year 2000.
by CNB