Revision of the Case Definition of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome for National Reporting—United States

Abstract

The Conference of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) approved the following definitions regarding the case definition of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) at its annual meeting in June 1985. 1st, the case definition of AIDS used for national reporting will continue to include only the more severe manifestations of human T-lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV-III) infection. 2nd, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) will develop more inclusive definitions and classifications of HTLV-III infection for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention, as well as for epidemiologic studies and special surveys. 3rd, a number of refinements will be adopted in the case definition of AIDS used for national reporting. In the absense of the opportunistic diseases required by the current case definition, disseminated histoplasmosis, isosporiasis, bronchial or pulmonary candidiasis, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of high-grade pathologic type, and histologically confirmed Kaposi's sarcoma in patients 60 years or over will be considered indicative of AIDS if the patient has a positive serologic or virologic test for HTLV-III. Also, in the absence of the required opportunistic diseases, a histologically confirmed diagnosis of chronic lymphoid insterstitial pneumonitis in a child under 3 years of age will be considered indicative of AIDS unless HTLV-III antibody tests are negative. Patients who have a lymphoreticular malignancy diagnosed more than 3 months after the diagnosis of an opportunistic disease used as a marker for AIDS will no longer be excluded as AIDS cases. Finally, to increase the specificity of the case definition, patients will be excluded as AIDS cases if they have a negative result on testing for serum antibody to HTLV-III, have no other test for HTLV-III with a positive result, and do not have a low number of T-helper lymphocytes or a low T4:T8 ratio.