Synopsis for November 28, 2003

The MMWR is embargoed until NOON ET, Thursdays.

1. Increases in HIV Diagnoses — 29 States, 1999–2002
2. Health Status of American Indians Compared with Other Racial/Ethnic Minority Populations — Selected States, 2001–2002
3. Diabetes Among Hispanics — Los Angeles County, California, 2002–2003
4. Hepatitis A Outbreak Associated with Green Onions at a Restaurant — Monaca, Pennsylvania, 2003
5. Global Progress Toward Certifying Polio Eradication and Laboratory Containment of Wild Polioviruses — August 2002–August 2003
6. West Nile Virus Activity — United States, November 20–25, 2003

MMWR Surveillance Summary
Vol. 52/No. SS-12

Abortion Surveillance—United States, 2000

CDC began abortion surveillance in 1969 to document the number and characteristics of women obtaining legal induced abortions. This report summarizes and describes data reported to CDC regarding legal induced abortions obtained in the United States in 2000.

Contact:
Office of Communication
CDC, National Center for Chronic Diseases & Health Promotion
(770) 488–5131

Synopsis for November 28, 2003

Increases in HIV Diagnoses — 29 States, 1999–2002

New surveillance data show HIV diagnoses up among Hispanics, whites.

The most comprehensive reporting of U.S. HIV diagnoses to date reveals that annual diagnoses increased by 8 percent among whites and 26 percent among Hispanics from 1999 to 2002. Diagnoses also increased 17 percent among men who have sex with men, confirming a more limited CDC analysis released in July. While no significant annual changes were seen among African Americans or Asians and Pacific Islanders, African Americans continued to represent the majority of new diagnoses. The new CDC data are from the 29 states that have had name-based HIV reporting since 1999, four of which were added to the analysis for the first time. The report’s findings call attention to the need to reach individuals at high risk for HIV infection with effective prevention programs, as well as the 850,000 to 950,000 HIV-positive Americans—one-fourth of whom are unaware of their infection—with HIV testing, prevention services and medical care.

Health Status of American Indians Compared with Other Racial/Ethnic Minority Populations — Selected States, 2001–2002

Among the major minority groups in the United States, American Indian communities have a higher risk factor and disease burden.

Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH 2010) is a community-based demonstration project to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health. During 2001-2002, a risk factor survey was conducted in 21,205 minority residents in 21 REACH communities from 14 states. Compared with other minority groups (e.g., blacks, Hispanics, and Asians), American Indians had a higher prevalence of obesity, smoking, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, high blood cholesterol, and diabetes. One-third of American Indians had at least 3 adverse risk factors/chronic diseases. However, American Indians were more likely to use preventive services including cholesterol screening, pneumonia vaccination, and hemoglobin A1C and foot exam in patients with diabetes. Developing and implementing culturally/socially sensitive primary prevention strategies are important to reducing risks and disease burdens in American Indian communities.

Diabetes Among Hispanics — Los Angeles County, California, 2002–2003

In Los Angeles County, efforts are under way to expand diabetes prevention and control efforts within low income Latino and African-American communities.

Diabetes is a serious disease associated with severe morbidity and premature death that disproportionately affects Hispanics in the United States. Little information is available on how sociodemographic factors affect the risk for diabetes in this population, and little is known of urban Hispanics. This report assessed diabetes prevalence among Latinos in Los Angeles County, the county with the largest urban Hispanic population, and found that diabetes continues to disproportionately affect Latinos compared with non-Hispanic whites and that it is strongly associated with poverty. These findings illustrate the need to provide additional diabetes prevention and treatment interventions for the Latino population in the county, particularly for Latinos living in poverty.

Hepatitis A Outbreak Associated with Green Onions at a Restaurant — Monaca, Pennsylvania, 2003

This report describes a large hepatitis A (HAV) outbreak associated with eating a food item containing green onions at a single restaurant.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health and CDC are investigating an outbreak of hepatitis A outbreak among patrons of a restaurant (Restaurant A) in Monaca, Pennsylvania. As of November 20, approximately 555 persons with hepatitis A have been identified, including at least 13 Restaurant A food service workers and 75 residents of six other states who dined at Restaurant A. The majority of ill patrons interviewed, as of November 21, were exposed during a 3-day period in early October. No ill food service worker identified could have been the source of the outbreak. The green onions likely were contaminated with HAV in the distribution system or during growing, harvest, packing, or cooling. Trace-back investigations completed to date have determined that the green onion source is one or more farms in Mexico. Three persons have died.

Global Progress Toward Certifying Polio Eradication and Laboratory Containment of Wild Polioviruses — August 2002–August 2003

Significant progress is being made in the process of certifying the world as polio-free and in the process of containing laboratory stores of poliovirus-containing samples.

At the end of the campaign to eradicate polio, the world will be certified as polio-free by a global certification commission. This will take place after each of the six WHO regions has been declared polio-free by regional certification commissions. To date, the Americas, Western Pacific, and European regions have been certified. As part of the global certification process, each country must identify laboratories that might have stored poliovirus-containing samples and survey those labs to determine whether such samples have been found. 90% of the identified labs in the Americas have been surveyed, 72% of those in the Western Pacific Region, and 91% of the labs in the European region. Significant progress toward laboratory containment of poliovirus is also being made in the remaining three regions.

West Nile Virus Activity — United States, November 20–25, 2003

No summary available.

Fact Sheet

November 28, 2003
Contact: CDC, National Center for Chronic Diseases
& Health Promotion
(770) 488-5131

The annual abortion surveillance report issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds the number of abortions performed in the United States continues to fall. Abortion Surveillance—United States, 2000 also finds that deaths related to legal induced abortions continue to be a rare occurrence (< 1 death per 100,000 abortions).

CDC began documenting the number and characteristics of women obtaining abortions in 1969. Additionally, in 1972, CDC began to monitor the number of abortion-related deaths occurring annually in the United States.

Other facts from the current report:

• In 2000, CDC received data on abortion from 49 reporting areas – which includes states, the District of Columbia and New York City. For the year 2000, Alaska, California and New Hampshire did not report and data for these areas were not estimated. In 1999, there were 48 areas reporting – Alaska, California, New Hampshire and Oklahoma did not report.
   
• In 2000, 857,475 legal induced abortions were reported. This total represents a 0.5 percent decrease from the 861,789 legal induced abortions reported in 1999. When comparing the total number of abortions for the 48 reporting areas used for last year’s report, a decrease of 1.3 percent between 1999 and 2000 is noted.
   
• The abortion ratio for 2000 is the lowest reported since 1974. The ratio per 1,000 live births was 246 in 2000, compared to 256 in 1999 (for areas reporting data for both years).
   
• In 2000, the abortion rate was 16 per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years. For 1997 through 1999, the abortion rate was 17 per 1,000 women in this age range (for areas reporting data for 1997-1999).
   
• Most abortions were obtained by white women, unmarried women, and women under age 25. As in previous years, about one-fifth of women who had abortions were age 19 or younger. Of the women who had an abortion, 40 percent were known to have had no previous live births.
   
• For 2000, 28 areas reported a total of 6,895 medical (nonsurgical) procedures. This figure reflects an increase of 10 percent from the 6,278 medical abortions reported by 26 reporting areas for 1999. Also, a small number of medical abortions were included in the "other" category by several states.
   
• As in previous years, more than half (58 percent) of reported legal induced abortions were performed during the first eight weeks of pregnancy; 88 percent were performed during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
   
• For the year 2000, CDC received legal-abortion data from 47 states, New York City, and the District of Columbia. The data are submitted voluntarily by health departments in the reporting areas. Data were not provided by Alaska, California and New Hampshire for 2000.
   
• The report includes numbers, rates and ratios of reported abortions by state of women’s residence as well as by the state in which the abortions were performed. However, Florida and Louisiana did not provide residence data, and Iowa provided data only on in-state residents. Arizona and Massachusetts provided data only on total number of abortions to out-of-state residents.
   
• In 1998 and 1999, a total of 14 maternal deaths related to legal induced abortion were reported. (This is the most recent data available on such deaths). Ten of these deaths occurred in 1998, and four in 1999. Overall, the number of such deaths was highest before the 1980s.

The full report is available online at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr. 

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