Study: Women unaware
of sexual disease risks
■ Millions are uninformed
about the practices of their
partners, die Alan
Guttmacher Institute says.
WASHINGTON (AP) - An esti
mated 17 million American women are
at ride of a sexually transmitted disease
because either they or their partners
recently have had sex with someone
else, a study by the Alan Guttmacher
Institute says.
Some 3.5 million women are not
aware of the risk because they believe
they are in a mutually monogamous
relationship, the study said.
But contrary to popular percep
tions, the proportion of sexually active
Americans who have had only one sex
partner in a given year- at least three
quarters - has not changed significantly
in a decade, the study said.
The more sexual partners a person
has, the more likbly he or she is to
encounter someone infected with the
AIDS virus or other sexually transmit
ted diseases. Even someone who has
had only one sexual partner can be
placed at risk if that partner has ever had
sex with someone else - one reason
health experts recommend using con
doms.
Guttmacher researcher Lawrence
Finer combed three federal behavior
surveys to estimate how many women
are at risk.
Some 5.4 million women ages 15
44 report having had more than one sex
partner in the previous year, concluded
a 1995 national study.
About 15 percent of women in that
study also reported that a husband or
boyfriend had had another sexual part
ner during that time. But another study
found 23 percent of men reported more
than one sexual partner in a year.
Finer combined the data to con
clude that some women were being
cheated on, and found about a third of
sexually active women are at risk of dis
ease because of either their own or their
partners’ sexual history.
The study is clearly an estimate, but
appears sound based on the best avail
able data, said William Mosher of the
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
The Guttmacher Institute is a pri
vate research group that focuses on
reproductive health issues.
66 die in Mexico
VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico
(AP) - Thousands of people huddled
on their rooftops Wednesday to
escape flooding in the Gulf coast
state of Tabasco as a tropical depres
sion dumped torrential rains on cen
tral and southern Mexico.
At least 66 people have died
because of flooding in 10 states.
Local media said the death toll could
rise as more victims are recovered
from mudslides and reports come in
from isolated communities.
Torrential rains from the season’s
11th tropical depression have caused
southeastern Mexico’s worst flood
ing in 40 years and have forced more
than 157,000 people from their
homes over the past week.
“Not even the army’s efforts have
been enough. Unfortunately it is now
impossible to control the flow of
water,” said Georgina Trujillo,
municipal president for Tabasco’s
capital, Villahermosa, 410 miles east
of Mexico City.
The ports of Tampico, Altamira
and Tuxpan in the Gulf of Mexico
have been closed to all shipping
indefinitely, the, federal
Communications and Transportation
Secretariat said.
Hundreds of eastern Mexican
towns and villages were isolated by
u
Unfortunately it is now impossible to
control the flow of water”
Georgina Trujillo
municipal president for Villahermosa
flooded roads and highways.
Thousands of people trying to flee
were stranded at bus stations.
“We had never seen anything like
this,” truck driver Armando Rosas
said Wednesday after waiting for
more than 12 hours to cross a flooded
highway in the central state of
Hidalgo n‘They say it could take two
more days before we can get across.”
; In other states, those who could
not flee clung to trees or rooftops
awaiting help. Rescue workers rowed
boats down the streets of Tulancingo,
60 miles northeast of Mexico City.
Military troops and civil protec
tion workers were called to help with
emergency efforts throughout the
region.
Tropical Depression No. 11, cen
tered about 150 miles north-north
east of Veracruz, weakened
Wednesday afternoon, according to
the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
But forecasters said heavy rains were
likely to continue over eastern
Mexico.
In the east-central state of Puebla,
whose inland mountains are raked by
rain and winds from the Gulf of
Mexico, state officials said
Wednesday at least 41 people had
been killed in mudslides or flooding,
and some 19,000 people evacuated to
56 shelters.
In the coastal state of Veracruz,
state officials said 19 people had
died, including three killed when
their rescue helicopter crashed
Tuesday in Hueyapan de Ocampo, 50
miles east of the coastal city of
Coatzacoalcos. Some 30,000 were
evacuated.
In the neighboring state of
Tabasco, already drenched by a week
of rain, officials said four people died
and 58,000 people were forced from
their homes.
^ I
Thatcher
makes plea
for Pinochet
BLACKPOOL, England (AP) -
Former Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher, in an impassioned plea for the
release of Gen. Augusto Pinochet,
declared Wednesday that the former
Chilean dictator is on trial “for defeat
ing communism.” , , .. ir M
“Make no mistake, revenge by the
left, not justice for the victim, is what
the Pinochet case is all about,” she told
a rally held with the Conservative
Party’s annual conference.
The speech was Thatcher’s first at a
Conservative conference since she was
dumped as party leader in 1990, and it
marked fee culmination of an electrify
ing return.
Outside the heavily guarded movie
theater in this north England town, a
few dozen anti-Pinochet protesters
waved banners and chanted: “Now is
the time to pay for your crime.”
Pinochet, a British ally when
Thatcherwentto war against Argentina
over the Falkland Islands in 1982, has
been held in Britain for nearly a year.
He is fighting a Spanish attempt to
extradite him to stand trial for human
rights abuses in Chile during his 17
year rule after seizing power in a 1973
coup. An official report says 3,197 peo
ple died or disappeared after the coup
that toppled elected Marxist President
Salvador AHende.
—————————————
