rjwill6@PacBell.COM (Rod Williams) (06/08/91)
A few items from a New York Times report on a Congressional hearing about women with AIDS on 6/6/91: Rep. Ted Weiss (D-NY) said that about 40% of those who are known to be HIV-positive in New York City are women. The Social Security Administration has not changed its definition of AIDS to include many disabling symptoms that affect only women, despite a recommendation in March to broaden the definition to include such symptoms as cervical cancer, candidiasis and pelvic inflammatory disease. One witness noted that if a poor person is HIV-positive and has a single KS lesion, the SSA automatically begins paying disablity benefits when applied for. But if a woman is HIV-positive and has had bouts of bacterial pneumonia, the beginnings of cervical cancer, pelvic inflammatory disease and a severely depleted immune system, she does not automatically qualify. Women, on average, die of AIDS in half the time of men with the disease. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- R O D W I L L I A M S P A C I F I C * B E L L S A N F R A N C I S C O , C A L I F O R N I A =========================================================================