In your article on wider availability of the anti-AIDS drug AZT, you state that ”people whose T-4 cells are below 200 . . . are considered to have full-blown AIDS.” While AZT has indeed been approved for use as a preventive therapy for people with HIV infection whose T-4 counts are below 200, these people do not necessarily have ”full-blown AIDS.”
According to official Centers for Disease Control guidelines, only those HIV-infected persons who have experienced one of several AIDS-related opportunistic infections are considered to have AIDS. The new AZT guidelines are important precisely because one no longer has to have a full AIDS diagnosis to be eligible for treatment. AZT has now been shown to help delay the onset of AIDS in those who test positive for HIV antibodies.
