Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1992. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - Tuesday, December 29, 1992
Activists and doctors are bracing for a higher demand for treatment and social services as more of those infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, are added to the ranks of those with AIDS.
"The systems are already overwhelmed," said John Kappers of the National Association of People With AIDS. "All of the services are already strained and on the edge."
Under the new definition, 90,000 Americans are expected to be diagnosed as having AIDS in 1993, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That compares with an average of 50,000 a year under the previous standard.
Since 1981, about 242,000 Americans have been diagnosed as having AIDS; 160,000 have died.
The CDC adopted the new definition after activists charged that the agency was ignoring AIDS symptoms peculiar to women and intravenous drug users. Under the 5-year-old definition, those with HIV were diagnosed as having AIDS when they developed blood infections, the skin cancer Kaposi's sarcoma or any of 21 other indicator diseases most common to men.
The new definition adds pulmonary tuberculosis, recurrent pneumonia and invasive cervical cancer, diseases more common to women or IV drug users.
More important, the CDC says, is a fourth new indicator: a dip in the level of the body's master immune cells, called CD4s, to 200 per cubic millimeter -- one-fifth the level in a healthy person.
About one million Americans are infected with HIV, and as many as 190,000 are estimated to have CD4 counts below 200, said Dr. James Buehler, acting deputy director of the CDC's AIDS division.
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