"Local health officials would like to set the record straight: AIDS cases are up statewide, but static in Kitsap County.Recent press reports incorrectly linked Kitsap to the rising tide of cases in Pierce County and elsewhere in Washington, said Dr. Willa Fisher, director of the Bremerton-Kitsap County Health District.We're lumped into a region that includes Pierce - where all the bad statistics are, Fisher said.A May 15 report to the Governor's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS indicated that AIDS was on the rise in Washington for the first time since 1993.Statewide, cases rose from 364 in 1999 to 385 in 2000, according to the report. Cases previously had been dropping steadily since a high of 994 in 1993, said Fisher.The number of new cases each year in Kitsap County has remained relatively flat since 13 were reported in 1988. Kitsap had 11 new cases in 1999 and nine in 2000, down from a high of 18 in 1991.There's nothing happening here, said Fisher.Fisher said Kitsap is paired with Pierce for two reasons.Counties with small numbers of AIDS patients are combined with counties with large numbers to avoid inadvertently identifying those afflicted. And statistics generally are tallied according to Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) regions, which often contain more than one county.The report, by the state's Department of Health, also said the number of women and minorities with AIDS was up.Fisher said Kitsap's numbers are too small to see trends.Seattle and King County AIDS patients are generally gay men, she said. Pierce suffers from high numbers of drug abusers infected with HIV. The rest of the state is mixed.Of 169 cases reported in Kitsap County since 1983, 151 have been men and 18 have been women. Of the 169, 83 percent were white, 10 percent were black and 3 percent were Hispanic. The rest were Asian or other ethnic groups.Homosexual men accounted for 62 percent of Kitsap AIDS cases. Ten percent were intravenous drug users and 5 percent were heterosexuals.Fisher said 95 of the patients have died.Because AIDS patients move in and out of Kitsap and other areas without notice, it is difficult to determine how many are in the county at any given time. The health district currently is counseling about 84, Fisher said.Statewide statistics are based on where the initial diagnosis took place. AIDS patients or their doctors are not required to contact the health district when they move. "

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