HIV-Infected Women Have Increased Risk of Death, Not Disease Progression

Off ice of
Cormunications
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases * National Institutes of Health
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE Marion E. Glick
Dec. 27,1994 [phone]
4 p.m. E.S.T.
HIV-Infected Women Have Increased Risk of Death, Not Disease Progression
HIV-infected women are one-third more likely to die without an AIDS-defining condition
than are HIV-infected men, according to a study from the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases (NIAID), reported in the Dec. 28 Journal of the American Medical Association.
The investigators could not identify why the women had a greater risk of relatively early
death but suggest that important factors may involve poorer access to or use of health care
resources among HIV-infected women as compared to men, domestic violence and lack of social
supports for women. The findings stem from 15 months of observations of more than 4,500
people enrolled in a prospective study of HIV disease progression and survival.
Among the surviving HIV-infected people in the study, no gender differences occurred in
the risk of subsequently developing an AIDS-associated condition. For these women and men,
the most commonly occurring AIDS-associated conditions included Pneumocystis carnil
pneumonia, an invasive form of the fungal infection candidiasis and extreme weight loss.
"To date, this study is the largest prospective analysis to compare survival and disease
progression between HIV-infected women and men while controlling for predictors of disease,"
says Jack Killen, M.D., director of the NIAID Division of AIDS (DAIDS). "We anticipate that these
study data will help in the pursuit of improved therapies for people with HIV disease and AIDS."
AIDS among women in the United States now represents nearly 13 percent of all U.S.
cases, a more than 20-fold increase since 1981. The disease is the leading cause of death for
women in New York City aged 25 to 44, and among the top five leading causes of death for
other U.S. women of the same age, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

(CDC). Some 51,235 women and 344,776 men in the United States have developed AIDS as of
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