FORT WAYNE -- The federal government has given the Indiana Department of Health $280,000 to study the cause of a jump in the number of AIDS and HIV cases in Indiana.
The health agency plans to begin its work in April by gathering test results and using more advanced equipment to determine whether people with newly reported cases of AIDS and HIV were infected within the past year. The results will be turned over to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
''One of the mandates the CDC has right now is to try to identify where the new infections are coming from,'' said Michael Butler, head of the health department's division on HIV and sexually transmitted diseases.
The study's second part, tentatively scheduled to begin next January, will examine whether people have been infected with a drug-resistant strain of HIV.
The number of newly reported cases of AIDS and HIV increased significantly in Indiana from 1999 to 2002, Butler said.
For instance, the number of new reports among white men grew from 340 in 1999 to about 430 in 2002. New reports for black men went from 140 in 1999 to 250 three years later.
Among white women, the number of new cases was 33 in 1999, then 68 in 2002. Black women had an increase from 78 new cases in 1999 to 88 in 2002, according to Butler.
''We've been used to seeing males making up 80 to 90 percent of our epidemic here in Indiana since we began tracking cases in the 1980s,'' Butler said. ''But we've been seeing a greater percentage of cases being reported among females.''
Project participants will come from traditional counseling and testing locations statewide and sign a consent form or waiver before their test results are used, Butler said. The exact sites to be included in the project have not been determined, he said.
Using the information, the health department will try to find ways to lower the infection rate, either with new ideas or old techniques.
''(We want to) look at it with a different eye and see what works,'' Butler said.
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