Whatever the precise number of cases of aids, deaths from the opportunistic infections that are associated with end-stage hiv disease accounted for a very large proportion of the total mortality among young men and women in new york city in 1989. among men aged 25 to 44, aids was the leading cause of death: 31.6 percent of deaths of men aged 25 to 34 and 35.2 percent of deaths of men aged 35 to 44. among women aged 25 to 34, aids accounted for 26.1 percent of all deaths; in addition, 10 percent of the mortality among women aged 15 to 24 and 17 percent of the mortality among women aged 35 to 44 was also directly attributable to aids?