Ethnostatistics and the AIDS epidemic

Ethnostatistics is the study of the social practices surrounding the construction and interpretation of statistics. This paper considers certain ethnostatistical aspects of the official statistics on AIDS cases--the monthly updated figures on AIDS cases supplied by the Department of Health and derived from the English and Scottish voluntary reporting schemes. The paper focuses on problems in the classification of cases according to the route of virus transmission, particularly where multiple risk practices may be reported. Some (but not all) classification problems can be avoided by adopting a cross-tabular format of presentation. The data on reported Scottish AIDS cases are re-analysed in order to illustrate such a cross-tabular representation. These data are the basis for a concluding statement on the difficulties in projecting future heterosexual epidemic spread.