Tom Schafer, spokesmen for the state's health department said now physicians report HIV cases by identifying patients by a number instead of using their names. A concerted effort by state and local officials to implement the new method explains the increase in reported cases, most of which were detected earlier, Schafer said. For both men and women, the number of people infected with HIV by blood transfusion increased by about 150 percent in 2000 over the previous year. Schafer said those cases dated from the late 1980's, when the United States did not require blood exams bef ore transfusions. In the release, Lumpkin said prevention has become more difficult since the late 1990's.
Nothing can cure that.
AFC is an umbrella organization that distributes grants for HIV education and prevention in the Chicago area. Solomon said Chicago's greater population, as well as the accessibility to drugs, explain in part the city's high percentage of HIV cases in Illinois. The state began keeping data on AIDS infection in 1981. Next month, the federal government will issue a nationwide report based on data from every state.