One-Third Of Prostitutes In New York City Have Aids, Study Finds

NEW YORK - A study that tested nearly 950 New York City streetwalkers found that a third of them were carrying the AIDS virus, one of the highest rates of infection ever found among U.S. prostitutes.

The nine-month study, paid for by the state Health Department and the federal Centers for Disease Control, tested streetwalkers in 18 neighborhoods in the five boroughs between April and December of last year.

It stands as the largest study of AIDS and streetwalkers to date, but its findings still are preliminary because they have not been formally reviewed and published in a scientific journal.

``If the results are valid, the findings are certainly cause for alarm,'' said William Darrow, a CDC epidemiology official who oversees studies of prostitutes and acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

``Many of these sexually active women will become pregnant and can pass the virus on to their unborn children,'' he said. ``In addition, they may be having unprotected sexual contact with hundreds of men who may be susceptible to getting the virus.''

The study, by Dr. Joyce Wallace of Manhattan, showed that 33.7 percent of the streetwalkers she tested for AIDS were infected. Previous New York City studies, using far smaller test samples, had shown infection rates ranging from 9 percent to 21 percent among streetwalkers, depending on the neighborhood.

CDC studies in 1988 showed the worst areas of HIV-infected streetwalkers were in northern New Jersey, including Newark, Jersey City and Paterson. Almost half the 168 women tested there were infected, and most used intravenous drugs.

Mirroring all the studies done so far on prostitutes and AIDS, Wallace found that the two greatest risk factors for prostitutes were intravenous drug use or having sex with an infected man.

She found, for example, that of the women who were infected, 73 percent had used intravenous drugs. An additional 23 percent of those testing positive said they had sex with an intravenous drug user.

Only 5 percent of the women surveyed said they had never used intravenous drugs, crack or cocaine. The study also found lower rates of infection among those who used condoms and whose level of education was higher.

Of the women who tested positive, nearly 50 percent were black, 27 percent were Hispanic and 22 percent were white. The average age was 30.

About 800, or 84 percent, of the prostitutes surveyed were mothers.

Most of their 1,339 children were living in foster care or with their grandmothers. Fifty-eight, or 6 percent, of the women were pregnant at the time they were tested.

Wallace said 21 percent of the women surveyed were homeless.