New York posts fewer AIDS deaths (11194)

Results released Friday by New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene shows that AIDS deaths were down in the city in 2002, as was the city's overall death rate, The New York Times reports. But the report shows that HIV is continuing to hit minorities disproportionately hard. AIDS was the cause of death for just 1.4% of Asians who died in the city in 2002 and 4% of whites, but it was the cause of death for 8.6% of Latinos, 12% of African-Americans, and 16.4% of people of Puerto Rican heritage. "Not only are blacks and Latinos more likely to have HIV, they are much more likely to die of it. The tremendous advances in HIV/AIDS treatment have not been spread equally," Thomas R. Frieden, city health commissioner, told the Times. The full health report can be found online at www.nyc.gov.