Opportunity to look at AIDS up close

[bearbandit]

The UK and US have different definitions for aids: in order to bring people who were clearly ill, but didn't fit into any of the categories for diagnosis with aids, the Americans decided that a CD4 count of less that 200 was part of the definition, which got a fair number of people onto welfare.

In the UK we're moving away from a straightforward definition of aids, using instead degrees of severity of HIV disease. So make a good recovery from cryptosporidiosis or PCP and you move from having severe HIV disease to mild or moderate, or maybe even aysmptomatic HIV disease.

The American system seems to say once you have aids you have aids, full stop, whereas the UK system allows for remission from aids.

[Bbikercub]

The UK and US have different definitions for aids: in order to bring people who were clearly ill' date=' but didn't fit into any of the categories for diagnosis with aids, the Americans decided that a CD4 count of less that 200 was part of the definition, which got a fair number of people onto welfare.

In the UK we're moving away from a straightforward definition of aids, using instead degrees of severity of HIV disease. So make a good recovery from cryptosporidiosis or PCP and you move from having severe HIV disease to mild or moderate, or maybe even aysmptomatic HIV disease.

The American system seems to say once you have aids you have aids, full stop, whereas the UK system allows for remission from aids.[/quote']

Thanks for the clarification. I'd always wondered that. Nice to know its not so cut and dried in the UK

[TattPig]

The CDC is now looking at ways to change the diagnosis categories, switching to a 3-stage model and dropping the term AIDS in diagnoses (substituting Stage 3 HIV).

They are also considering dropping opportunistic illnesses as a criteria for Stage 3 and just using CD4 counts. And they propose a system in which someone can move from Stage 3 back to a lower stage if their condition improves, similar to what Bearbandit described in the UK.

I don't know when a decision will be made. Here's a link to a 3-page PDF about the report of their study...

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/reports/pdf/HIV_Case_Def_Consult_Summary.pdf

Edited March 29, 2013 by TattPig

[bearbandit]

Dropping an OI and depending solely on CD4 counts would be a mistake in my opinion, as it's possible for OI's to happen outside their extected CD4 range - I once knew a guy who had PCP and a CD4 of 700. I guess a lot of the decision making in the document referenced has to do with USA politics and welfare. I think that's a mistake as some people's CD4 count ricochets all over the fucking place. For myself in a five year period I had one opportunistic infection and a CD4 count whose graph looked like like a very jittery heartbeat. I can see it now, turning up at my quarterly appointment and asking which stage am I at this time...

[wood]

to the OP, any updates?