Smoking among lesbians, gays, and bisexuals: a review of the literature.

OBJECTIVES: To collect estimates of smoking prevalence among lesbian, gay, and bisexual people from the published literature and to compare with general population estimates. METHODS: Databases were searched for all studies published in English on tobacco use among lesbians, gays, and bisexuals. From 1987 through 2000, twelve studies were identified (four youth, eight adult): seven were based on convenience samples; one on a population-based probability sample; one involved random sampling within selected census tracts; one was based on a large multicenter clinical trial; and two were representative school-based samples. Study findings were compared to national survey data from the corresponding time period. RESULTS: Estimated smoking rates for lesbians, gays, and bisexuals ranged from 38% to 59% among youth and from 11% to 50% among adults. National smoking rates during comparable periods ranged from 28% to 35% for adolescents and were approximately 28% for adults. CONCLUSIONS: While information in the published literature is limited, it appears that smoking rates are higher among adolescent and adult lesbians, gays, and bisexuals than in the general population. Steps should be taken to ensure representation of lesbians, gays, and bisexuals in tobacco-use surveillance and to collect data in order to understand the apparent high smoking rates in these groups. Attempts should be made to target prevention and cessation interventions to lesbians, gays, and bisexuals.

Successful implementation of perinatal HIV prevention guidelines. A multistate surveillance evaluation.

In 1994, zidovudine (ZDV) was demonstrated to substantially reduce perinatal transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Guidelines regarding the use of ZDV to reduce transmission and regarding counseling and voluntary testing of pregnant women were issued in 1994 and 1995, respectively. Surveillance methods were used to evaluate the implementation of these guidelines and to understand reasons for continued perinatal transmission of HIV. Population-based enhanced perinatal surveillance was used in seven states to collect information regarding mother-infant pairs in 1993, 1995, and 1996. Birth registries and HIV/Acquired immunodeficiency virus (AIDS) registries were matched to determine the number of HIV-infected women with diagnosis before delivery. Supplemental epidemiologic information was collected for 1,321 pairs. The estimated total number of HIV-infected women giving birth each year was derived from the Survey of Childbearing Women, an anonymous serologic survey of the prevalence of HIV infection among women giving birth. From 1993 through 1996, the proportion of HIV-infected women with diagnosis before delivery increased from 70% to 80%. The proportion of women with a diagnosis who received ZDV prenatally increased from 27% to 83% and intrapartum, 6% to 75%; for neonates, the increase was from 8% to 77%. Overall, 14% of women received no or only one prenatal care visit. A total of 36% of women who used illicit drugs during pregnancy had not had prenatal care. Of the children who received any ZDV, 8% were infected compared with 16% of those who received no ZDV. ZDV, used for treating pregnant HIV-infected women, has been rapidly adopted in clinical practice and has reduced the transmission of HIV. To achieve continued declines in perinatal transmission of HIV infection, continued progress is needed in the following areas: a) increases in the proportion of women who receive prenatal care and an HIV diagnosis; and b) implementation of rapid testing methods (when licensed rapid tests are available) or rapid turnaround of standard tests (expedited EIA tests).

A method for classification of HIV exposure category for women without HIV risk information.

An increasing number of cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) among women is reported to state and territorial health departments without exposure risk information (i.e., no documented exposure to HIV through any of the recognized routes of HIV transmission). Because surveillance data are used to plan prevention and other services for HIV-infected persons, developing methods to accurately estimate exposure risk for HIV and AIDS cases initially reported without risk information and assisting states to analyze and interpret trends in the HIV epidemic by exposure risk category is important. In this report, a classification model using discriminant function analysis is described. The purpose of the classification model is to develop a proportionate distribution of exposure risk category for cases among women reported without risk information. The distribution was estimated based on behavioral and demographic data obtained from interviews with HIV-infected women; the interviews were conducted in 12 states during 1993-1996. Variables used in the analysis were alcohol abuse, noninjection-drug use, and crack use; year of HIV/AIDS diagnosis; age; employment; and region. As a result of the classification procedure, nearly all cases among women with no reported risk were classified into an exposure risk category: 81%, heterosexual contact; and 16%, injection-drug use. These proportions are higher than the current redistribution fractions (calculated from risk reclassification patterns and weighted by demographic characteristics) and reflect the increasing proportion of cases among women attributable to heterosexual contact with an infected partner. This report provides one method that could be applied to HIV surveillance data at the national level to estimate the proportion of cases in exposure risk categories. However, because the study in this report is limited in sample size and geographic representativeness, other models are also needed for adjusting risk exposure data at the national, state, and local levels.

Tracking the HIV epidemic: current issues, future challenges.

The emergence of a new infectious disease, AIDS, in the early 1980s resulted in the development of a national AIDS surveillance system. AIDS surveillance data provided an understanding of transmission risks and characterized communities affected by the epidemic. Later, these data provided the basis for allocating resources for prevention and treatment programs. New treatments have dramatically improved survival. Resulting declines in AIDS incidence and deaths offer hope that HIV disease can be successfully managed. However, to prevent and control HIV/AIDS in the coming decades, the public health community must address new challenges. These include the defining of the role of treatment in reducing infectiousness; the potential for an epidemic of treatment-resistant HIV; side effects of treatment; complacency that leads to relapses to high-risk behaviors; and inadequate surveillance and research capacity at state and local levels to guide the development of health interventions. Meeting these challenges will require reinvesting in the public health capacity of state and local health departments, restructuring HIV/AIDS surveillance programs to collect the data needed to guide the response to the epidemic, and providing timely answers to emerging epidemiologic questions.

Duration of human immunodeficiency virus infection and likelihood of giving birth in a Medicaid population in Maryland.

The objective of this study was to examine the effect of duration of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection on a woman's likelihood of giving birth. Using longitudinal data from the Maryland state Human Immunodeficiency Virus Information System and a retrospective cohort design, the authors compared 1,642 women with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) to 8,443 uninfected women enrolled in the Medicaid program between 1985 and 1995. The decade before AIDS diagnosis was divided into four 2.5-year periods. Proximity to AIDS diagnosis served as a proxy for duration of infection. An extension of the Cox model was used to estimate the relative risk for giving birth, with adjustment for covariates and repeated outcomes. The average number of births per 100 person-years was 6.0 for HIV-infected women and 11.1 for uninfected women (adjusted relative risk = 0.63; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.57, 0.68). Accounting for duration of infection, the adjusted relative risks for birth among HIV-infected women, as compared with uninfected women, were 0.85 (95% CI: 0.71, 1.03), 0.74 (95% CI: 0.63, 0.86), 0.55 (95% CI: 0.47, 0.64), and 0.45 (95% CI: 0.38, 0.55) for successive 2.5-year periods before AIDS diagnosis. Demographic characteristics, contraception, abortion, fetal loss, or drug use could not fully explain the reductions. These results suggest that HIV-infected women experience a progressive reduction in births years before the onset of AIDS. This may compromise estimation of HIV prevalence and interpretation of time trends from serosurveillance of pregnant women.

AIDS among Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States with reported acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). METHODS: AIDS surveillance data reported through June 1998 were analyzed. Characteristics of cumulative case patients, rates of AIDS incidence in 1996 through 1997, and trends from 1982 through 1996 were analyzed. RESULTS: Through December 1998, 4,928 Asian and Pacific Islander adults and 46 Asian and Pacific Islander children with AIDS were reported in the United States. Of the total cases, 89% were in men, and 79% of those were in men who have sex with men (MSM). Five states, which account for 63% of the Asian and Pacific Islander population in the United States, reported 78% of the cases: California (45%), Hawaii (12%), New York (15%), Texas (3%), and Washington (3%). Of the 92% of Asian and Pacific Islander patients with country of birth information, 59% were foreign-born, a percentage that corresponds to the distribution in the general population. The overall incidence rate per 100,000 for 1996 through 1997 was 12.8 (21.3 for men; 3.3 for women). The highest rate was in the Northeast (15.9), followed by the West (13.8), South (10.6), and Midwest (5.7). Tuberculosis, reported for 6% of Asians and Pacific Islanders, was higher among foreign-born than among U.S.-born Asians and Pacific Islanders (8% and 4%, respectively). Between 1982 and 1996, AIDS incidence among MSM increased and peaked in 1994. Among heterosexual contacts and injection drug users, incidence has increased but remained low. CONCLUSIONS: The AIDS epidemic among Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States has primarily affected MSM and is concentrated in a few states where most Asians and Pacific Islanders reside. Prevention activities should include consideration of cultural diversity and an understanding of cultural norms regarding sexuality. Additional information on risk behaviors and seroprevalence among Asian and Pacific Islander MSM is needed to better guide prevention planning.

Trends in HIV prevalence among childbearing women in the United States, 1989-1994.

We used data from a national serosurvey to describe national and regional trends in the prevalence of HIV among women giving birth in the United States from 1989 through 1994, and to estimate the number of women between 15 and 44 years old with HIV infection who had not yet developed opportunistic infections defining AIDS. We compared these estimates with AIDS prevalence and mortality estimates from the national AIDS case surveillance system. HIV seroprevalence among childbearing women remained stable nationwide from 1989 through 1994, ranging from 1.5 to 1.7/1000 women. In the Northeast, seroprevalence declined significantly after 1989. Seroprevalence increased significantly in the South through 1991 and then stabilized, although seroprevalence among black women continued to increase through 1994 in some southern states. Although AIDS prevalence and mortality increased nationwide each year from 1989 through 1994, the number of women infected with HIV who had not yet developed AIDS changed little and was approximately 86,000 in 1994. Our data suggest that new HIV infections among women of reproductive age are occurring at a rate that offsets losses from this population due to aging, disease progression, and death.

Donor insemination and human immunodeficiency virus transmission.

OBJECTIVE: To describe cases of AIDS attributed to donor insemination identified through national human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS surveillance and to compare the number identified through surveillance with our estimate of the number of women infected as a result of donor insemination before the initiation of donor screening. METHODS: We reviewed national HIV/AIDS surveillance data on women reported through December 1996 and described characteristics of documented and possible cases attributed to donor insemination. We estimated the number of women infected before the initiation of widespread screening of donors using assumptions about the number of women inseminated each year, the average number of inseminations, the proportion of donors who were men who had sex with men, the prevalence of HIV among such men, and the rate of transmission per HIV-infected exposure. RESULTS: A total of six documented and two possible cases of donor insemination-associated AIDS have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of December 1996. An estimated eight to 141 women were infected through donor insemination in the United States between 1980 and 1984. Reasons for this discrepancy are discussed. CONCLUSION: Based on surveillance case reports and on our estimate, the total number of women infected as a result of donor insemination before screening was recommended is low. Current sperm bank practices to prevent HIV infection will be strengthened further by a pending proposal from the Food and Drug Administration requiring infectious disease screening and testing of semen donors. The most likely source of risk of new infections associated with donor insemination is self-insemination.

AIDS in women in the United States. Recent trends.

CONTEXT: The effect of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic on women is substantial and warrants an updated analysis. OBJECTIVE: To describe AIDS incidence trends in women. DESIGN: We analyzed national surveillance data on women 13 years of age and older with AIDS reported through June 1996. Data were adjusted for reporting delay, unreported risk, and the 1993 change in AIDS surveillance case definition to assess overall trends and examine trends by age group and birth cohort. SETTING: Surveillance conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in collaboration with state and local health departments. RESULTS: In 1995, women accounted for 19% of AIDS cases in adults; AIDS incidence rates per 100000 women were highest in black women (50.1), women in the Northeast (22.3), heterosexual contacts (5.5), and women living in metropolitan statistical areas with more than 1 million residents (15.9). Greatest increases in rates between 1991 and 1995 by region and mode of transmission were in the South and in heterosexual contacts. Greatest increases in AIDS incidence rates were observed in heterosexually infected women born between 1970 and 1974, ie, women who were 14 to 18 years old in 1988. CONCLUSIONS: These trends predict continued growth of the number of AIDS cases in women, especially in those in the South and those infected heterosexually, and suggest that successive cohorts of young women may be at risk for human immunodeficiency virus infection as they reach adolescence and young adulthood. Prevention programs must reach young women before they initiate sexual activity and drug use.

HIV testing patterns: where, why, and when were persons with AIDS tested for HIV?

OBJECTIVE: To describe the location of, primary reason for, and time between the first positive HIV test and AIDS diagnosis in a sample of persons with newly diagnosed AIDS. DESIGN: Interviews supplementing information routinely collected through AIDS case reporting. SETTING: Eleven US states and cities. PATIENTS: Persons with AIDS (2441) diagnosed between January 1990 and December 1992. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Location of first positive HIV test, primary reason for testing, and time interval between first positive HIV test and AIDS diagnosis. RESULTS: Overall, persons were tested late in their course of HIV infection: 36% were tested for HIV within 2 months and 51% within 1 year of their AIDS diagnosis. Sixty-five per cent were HIV-tested in acute health-care settings: 33% in hospitals, 28% in physicians' offices, and 4% in emergency departments. Testing during hospitalization was most common among injecting drug users (43%) and persons infected through heterosexual contact (50%). Persons primarily sought HIV testing because of illness (58%); other reasons included being in a known risk group (13%) and having had a known HIV-infected sex partner (8%). Testing because of being in a known risk group was least common among persons infected through heterosexual contact (1%). Among persons in these exposure categories, testing differed by race/ethnicity. CONCLUSION: Most persons with AIDS were tested relatively late in their course of HIV infection, in acute health-care settings, and because of illness. Not knowing one's serostatus precludes early medical intervention and may increase transmission.

Pneumococcal and influenza vaccination levels among HIV-infected adolescents and adults receiving medical care in the United States. Adult and Adolescent Spectrum of HIV Disease Project Group.

OBJECTIVE: To assess pneumococcal and influenza vaccination coverage among HIV-infected adolescents and adults receiving medical care in the United States. DESIGN: Periodic medical record reviews. SETTING: More than 90 clinics, hospitals, and private medical practices in nine cities. PATIENTS: HIV-infected individuals aged > or = 13 years were included in the analyses of pneumococcal (n = 9737) and influenza (n = 6161) vaccination coverage. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Documentation of receipt of pneumococcal and influenza vaccines in medical records during 6-18-month and 12-month periods, respectively. RESULTS: Overall, 37 and 33% of individuals received pneumococcal and influenza vaccines, respectively. In general, vaccination levels varied little by age group, race/ethnicity, or mode of HIV exposure. Having had at least five medical visits was significantly associated with having received pneumococcal and influenza vaccines [adjusted odds ratio (OR), 1.7 for each]. Having a CD4+ T-lymphocyte count < 200 x 10(6)/l (adjusted OR, 0.8) and being female (adjusted OR, 0.7) were associated with non-receipt of pneumococcal vaccine. Lower pneumococcal vaccination coverage among women was mostly accounted for by pregnancy. CONCLUSION: Until new, more effective means of preventing pneumococcal disease and influenza become available, efforts should be directed towards improving vaccination levels among HIV-infected individuals.