The Relationship between the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (Draft)

DRAFT
percent had AIDS and 17 percent died of HIV-related diseases (European Collaborative Study,
1991).
In a multicenter study in Bangkok, Thailand, 105 children born to HIV-infected mothers
were recently evaluated (Chearskul et al., 1994). Of 27 infants determined to be HIV-infected
by PCR, 24 developed HIV-related symptoms, including 6 who developed CDC-defined AIDS,
and 4 who died with conditions clinically consistent with AIDS. Among 77 exposed but
uninfected infants, no deaths occurred.
In a study of 481 infants in Haiti, the survival rate at 18 months was 41 percent for
HIV-infected infants, 84 percent among uninfected infants born to seropositive women and 95
percent among infants born to seronegative women (Boulos et al., 1994).
Other investigators have reported cases of HIV-infected mothers with twins discordant
for HIV-infection in which the HIV-infected child developed AIDS, while the other child
remained clinically and immunologically normal (Park et al., 1987; Menez-Bautista et al., 1986;
Guerrero Vazquez et al., 1993; Thomas et al., 1990; Young, 1990; Goedert, et al., 1991;
Barlow and Mok, 1993).
AIDS Surveillance: Quantifying the Epidemic
The term AIDS first appeared in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) of
the CDC in 1982 to describe "...a disease, at least moderately predictive of a defect in cellmediated immunity, occurring with no known cause for diminished resistance to that disease"
(CDC, 1982b). The initial CDC list of AIDS-defining conditions, which included KS, PCP, MAC
and other conditions, has been updated on several occasions, with significant revisions (CDC,
1985a, 1987a, 1992a).
For surveillance purposes, the ODC currently defines AIDS in an adult or adolescent
age 13 or older as the presence of one of 25 AIDS-indicator conditions, such as KS, POP, or
disseminated MAC, with or without laboratory evidence of HIV infection; or HIV infection in an
individual with a CD4+ T cell count less than 200/cells per cubic millimeter (mm3) of blood

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