The drug-related AIDS epidemic in New Jersey


The growing number of people living with injection-related HIV and AIDS in New Jersey

The chart below is based on all New Jersey HIV and AIDS cases, but since, in New Jersey, 70 percent of all AIDS cases for which the exposure group is known are injection-related, the chart can be seen as a fairly good description of the trend in the growth of the number of persons living with injection-related HIV or AIDS in New Jersey.(1a)

Health emergency

Through the end of 1998, some 21,400 New Jersey residents age 13 and over had injection-related AIDS or had died from it. (1)

New Jersey has the fifth highest injection-related AIDS rate in the nation. (2)

About 70 percent of all AIDS cases in New Jersey are injection-related. (3)

Metro areas ranking among highest in the U.S.

The Jersey City metro area ranks third in injection-related AIDS among U.S. metro areas of over 500,000.

The Newark metro area ranks fourth.

The Bergen - Passaic metro area ranks fourteenth. (4)

The crisis among African Americans and Latinos

Through the end of 1998, some 13,300 African Americans and 3,400 Latinos living in New Jersey had injection-related AIDS or had died from it.

The rate of injection-related AIDS cases among blacks in New Jersey is 19 times higher than the rate for whites.  The rate for Latinos is 6 times higher than the rate for whites. (5)

Thousands of all races at risk

In 1996, in New Jersey's metropolitan areas of over 500,000, there were an estimated 144,000 who were at risk for HIV either because they injected drugs or because they were the heterosexual partners of persons who injected drugs. (6) 

Access to sterile needles in New Jersey

Despite something close to a consensus among U.S. medical experts that needle exchange is an important part of HIV prevention, Governor Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey continues to express her adamant opposition to needle exchange programs.  Both needle exchange and pharmacy sale of syringes without a prescription are illegal in New Jersey.

Information on the USA and other states

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Footnotes  

(1a) The number of persons living with HIV/AIDS in New Jersey is taken from the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services publication "New Jersey HIV/AIDS Cases" taken from the appropriate years.  New Jersey AIDS death figures are unpublished data from the same Department.

 

(1)

AIDS data are from a special tabulation from the Centers for Disease Control.  Injection-related AIDS cases include persons in the following risk groups: persons who inject drugs; men who have sex with men and inject drugs; and the heterosexual partners of persons who inject drugs.  AIDS cases are rounded to the nearest hundred.  

 
(2)

Injection-related AIDS rates per million for states were calculated using injection-related AIDS cases among persons age 13 and over (the 3-year average for the years 1996-1998) divided by the 1997 population age 13 and over.  The 3-year average was used to smooth out any unusual variations from year to year and to get a more realistic final figure. When ties occurred in state rates, the states involved were given the same rank.

U.S. population data are from the U.S. Bureau of Census.  The population of Puerto Rico age 13 and over was estimated using total population data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census and the projected age distributions from Eduard Bos, My T. Vu, Ernest Massiah, and Rodolfo A. Bulatao, World population projections 1994-1995.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1994, page 410.  

 
(3)

The estimate that 70 percent of all AIDS cases in New Jersey are injection-related used in this report is based on a count of both injecting drug users AND their heterosexual partners which was available from the CDC.  The published data from the New Jersey Dept. of Health and Senior Services lumps all people exposed to AIDS through heterosexual sex together, so injection-related AIDS cases based on New Jersey Dept. of Health and Human Services data can only count injecting drug users themselves and not their sexual partners.  This leads to an understating of the extent to which lack of sterile syringes in New Jersey is a cause of the spread of HIV/AIDS in New Jersey. 

The percentage of AIDS cases that are injection-related was calculated by dividing the number of injection-related AIDS cases (the 3-year average from the years 1996-1998) by the number of AIDS cases for which the exposure group is known (also a 3-year average from the years 1996-1998).  Each percent is rounded to the nearest 5.  Thus, for example, 42 percent was rounded to 40.

 
(4)

Injection-related AIDS rates per million for metro areas were calculated using injection-related AIDS cases among persons age 13 and over (the 3-year average for the years 1996-1998) divided by the total 1997 population (including those age 12 and under). Population data are from the U.S. Bureau of Census.  When ties occurred in rates, the metro areas involved were given the same rank.  

 
(5)

Injection-related AIDS rates per million by race/ethnic group for each state were calculated using injection-related AIDS cases among persons age 13 and over for each racial/ethnic group (the 3-year average for the years 1996-1998) divided by the 1997 population  age 13 and over for that racial/ethnic group.  In instances when the ratio of AIDS rates for African Americans to whites or Latinos to whites was greater than 20, the ratio is reported as "greater than 20" rather than given as the exact ratio. Rates are not reported when the total number of AIDS cases for 1996-1998 was less than 100.   

 
(6)

Scott D. Holmberg, "The Estimated Prevalence and Incidence of HIV in 96 Large US Metropolitan Areas," American Journal of Public Health, May 1996, vol. 86, no. 5. Supplementary Material.  Available from the CDC.  

 

For other materials used on this website, see References.