Subject: Cervical Cancer Is Among Additions To Proposed New U. S. AIDS Definition 
Date: Published: 10/28/92 (55 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Technology & Health:
    Cervical Cancer Is Among Additions
    To Proposed New U. S. AIDS Definition
    ----
    By Helene Cooper
    Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

    ATLANTA -- The Centers for Disease Control, in what some
 observers called a victory for women infected with the AIDS virus,
 proposed adding three illnesses -- including invasive cervical
 cancer -- to its planned expansion of the definition of acquired
 immune deficiency syndrome.
    In November 1991, the agency first proposed expanding the
 definition to simplify identification of AIDS and to give medical
 providers and patients a more complete picture of the illness.
 Currently, a person generally is characterized as having AIDS if he
 or she has contracted the human immunodeficiency virus and exhibits
 one of the 23 specific symptoms, including various types of
 pneumonia, cancer, and fungal and parasitic infections.
    The definition proposed last November would also include
 measuring an individual's T4 lymphocytes -- white blood cells whose
 levels indicate how well the immune system is functioning.  If that
 number drops below 200 lymphocytes, then a person would be
 identified as having AIDS.  (The normal level is about 1,000.)  
    The expanded definition, which is scheduled to be published
 before year's end and implemented in January, would mean an
 additional 40,000 people diagnosed with AIDS each year, according to
 Dr. John W. Ward, chief of reporting and analysis in the CDC's
 division of HIV/AIDS.  Currently, 242,000 individuals are classified
 by the federal agency as having AIDS, up from 196,000 a year ago.
    The three additional illnesses -- pulmonary tuberculosis,
 recurrent pneumonia and cervical cancer -- would join the 23 other
 symptoms that, coupled with HIV infection, currently define AIDS.  
 Those three illnesses, in turn, would likely add several thousand
 cases each year to the AIDS count, above and beyond the 40,000
 linked to the T4 levels.  This would mean that people with these
 three illnesses who are infected with the HIV virus would be
 eligible for programs and drugs to fight AIDS.  
    Female AIDS activists, who have complained that many diseases
 that primarily affect women with AIDS haven't been included in the
 definition, have pushed for the inclusion of invasive cervical
 cancer.
    "I think this is a move in the right direction," said Debbie
 Trott, clinic manager at the AIDS Resource Center in Dallas.  "But
 it's certainly not the end of the war."  Ms. Trott said she would
 like to see other female illnesses that plague women with AIDS, like
 recurring vaginal yeast infections, included in the definition.

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