AIDS deaths
decline in Kansas

The number of newly diagnosed HIV cases is holding steady in Kansas, but AIDS-related deaths are dropping in the state, health officials told the Associated Press. A total of 176 new HIV cases were diagnosed in Kansas in 2004, roughly the same number that were diagnosed a decade earlier. But AIDS deaths have dropped from a peak of 134 per year in 1994 to just 34 last year. Health officials say improvements in anti-HIV drugs and other advances in medical technology have helped lower the death rate. But they still worry that HIV infections continue at high levels. "People think that if you get the virus, it's OK because there's a pill to take," Geri Summers, director of the Douglas County AIDS Project, told the Associated Press. "There's still no cure for AIDS, and the pills that people have to take a lot of times have horrible side effects." (The Advocate)