By Stephen E. Mather
Maryland Newsline
Thursday, Dec. 11, 2003

The Maryland AIDS Administration identifies the main behaviors that put people at risk of HIV and AIDS: men having sex with men, injection drug use and heterosexual contact. While at the start of the epidemic most AIDS patients were gay men, the figures below show that in Maryland there are now more HIV and AIDS cases reported each year caused by injection drug use and heterosexual contact.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

The numbers in Fig. 1 begin in 1994 because Maryland began reporting HIV numbers that year. Fig. 2 shows AIDS exposure trends since 1986.

* The "Other" category includes hemophiliacs, transfusion patients, pediatric transmission cases and people exposed on the job.

Source: The Maryland 2002 HIV/AIDS Annual Report