AIDS-Related Pneumonia Cases Appear More Frequently in Certain Neighborhoods
Two studies, one by Dr. Peter Walzer of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the other by Dr. Alison Morris at the University of California-San Francisco, published in the November issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine show evidence that Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, a potentially fatal infection for people with AIDS, may "cluster" in certain neighborhoods, Reuters Health reports. Walzer's study examined the records of 960 patients treated at an AIDS clinic in Cincinnati between 1986 and 1989, and found that PCP was most common in four zip codes, three of which were in "relatively well-off" metropolitan areas. The second study found that AIDS patients in a certain San Francisco zip code had a "reduced risk" of contracting PCP. "Cases of pneumocystosis tended to occur in the more affluent areas of Cincinnati and San Francisco. This result was somewhat surprising, given the association of poverty with infectious diseases
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