DATE: Wednesday, September 17, 1997         TAG: 9709170515

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A6   EDITION: FINAL 

DATELINE: CHICAGO                           LENGTH:   22 lines

AIDS EPIDEMIC WORSENING AMONG WOMEN, SOUTHERNERS

The AIDS infection rate is rising among women, especially those living in the South, and transmission through sex with infected men has outpaced infection from intravenous drug use, federal researchers say.

From 1991 through 1995, the number of women diagnosed with AIDS increased by 63 percent versus 12.8 percent for men.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, the disease was spread in women primarily through sharing injection drug needles. But by 1995, transmission through sex with infected men had risen to 52 percent of the cases nationwide. In the South, it was even worse - 58 percent.

More up-to-date data to be released later this week will show the trend continuing, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

KEYWORDS: AIDS STATISTICS

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