HIV-Infected Women Have Increased Risk of Death, Not Disease Progression

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episodes of the AIDS-related cancer Kaposi's sarcoma (0.2 versus 4.8 percent) and oral hairy
leukoplakia (2 versus 5.5 percent). Four women reported cervical malignancies, but screening
for such cancers was not performed in the study.
NIAID started the CPCRA in 1989, naming the network in 1991 for Terry Beirn, the late
former manager at the American Foundation for AIDS Research and a health policy consultant
for Sen. Edward Kennedy. CPCRA involves physicians and nurses in primary care settings in
community-based clinical research. The CPCRA is designed to include leading scientists,
institutions and a demographically diverse population in atgiram of HIV/AIDS research. The
network ensures that potentially effective therapies can be translated into standard patient care
for all infected people, notes Dr. Killen.
Recompeted in September 1994, CPCRA has 16 units in 15 U.S. cities. Of the more
than 15,000 patients enrolled in CPCRA studies as of December 1994, 43 percent are African
American, 21 percent are Hispanic, 31 percent are white, 22 percent are women and 27 percent
describe themselves as injection drug users.
For more information about CPCRA trials, call the AIDS Clinical Trials Information Service
at 1-800-TRIALS-A.
NIAID, a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), supports investigators and
scientific studies at universities, medical schools, hospitals and research institutions in the United
States and abroad aimed at preventing, diagnosing and treating such illnesses as AIDS,
tuberculosis and asthma as well as allergies. NIH is an agency of the U.S. Public Health
Service, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.