Who Gets It Each form of this illness occurs in fairly specific groups. Classic KS is a disease of the elderly, with the average age of onset being over 70. The disease is more frequent in people of Mediterranean background and is more common in Jews, with Ashkenazic rather than the Sephardic Jews being affected. Men get classic KS 14 times more frequently than women.
The form that follows immune-suppressing drugs accounts for about 3 percent of all tumors that occur in people who have had kidney transplants, which is a very high rate of occurrence. Men get this form of the disease twice as frequently as women. The age of occurrence depends on the age when the medical treatment started.
Non-AIDS-related African KS accounts for nearly 10 percent of all cancers in central Africa. This is an illness that attacks young adults and affects about 10 males to every female. This ratio drops to three to one in children.
Epidemic AIDS-related KS occurs in all age groups. Babies of infected mothers may develop AIDS and KS, as can people who have contracted HIV from a blood transfusion received before 1985. (With current blood screening methods, the risk of contracting HIV from a contaminated unit of blood is estimated to be once for every 153,000 units of blood. There is no risk of contracting HIV by donating blood.)
Among the unexplained observations in epidemic KS is that different rates of occurrence are found in each of the groups of people with AIDS. The tumor is nearly 10 times more frequent in gay men with AIDS than in people who have AIDS because of blood transfusions, IV drug use or hemophilia.
