The total number of AIDS cases diagnosed by the end of September 1999 was 21,364. The state has the eighth highest number of AIDS cases in the United States and the 13th highest rate of AIDS cases per 100,000 people. The Department of Human Resources public health system continues to enhance its efforts to provide prevention education, early detection of HIV infection, and treatment. In the early stages of the epidemic most people with HIV were men. From 1984 to 1998, the proportion of female AIDS cases increased from 4 percent to 19 percent.
Many infected women are sex partners of men who have used drugs or have had sex with other men.
As more women become infected with HIV, more children may be born with HIV infection. About one in five babies born to HIV-infected women is infected. Teenagers are becoming infected. Teenagers of both sexes are at risk for infection. Teens are not likely to perceive themselves at risk and may be willing to take chances with unprotected sex, and teens often have sex with older partners who may have had multiple sex partners or used drugs.