The Nation - News from Jan. 24, 1989

A dramatic increase in deaths from AIDS made it the third largest killer in the nation’s biggest city last year, but it was still well behind heart disease and cancer, New York City health officials said. When broken down by age, AIDS was the leading cause of death among men in the city between the ages of 30 and 44, and women aged 25 to 39. Overall, AIDS accounted for 4.8% of the city’s deaths. A total of 3,710 people died in the city from AIDS in 1988, a 17% increase over the 3,159 deaths in 1987, Health Commissioner Stephen Joseph reported. The figures were contained in the Health Department’s annual report and come a month after state health officials predicted an unabated increase in AIDS cases and deaths over the next five years. “To date, almost 19,000 people have been diagnosed with AIDS in New York City,” Joseph said. He said that figure represents 23% of the total number of AIDS cases reported in the entire country.