AIDS dementia complex

January 2007     View PDF     En español

Incidence

Anecdotal reports indicate that there are fewer people with ADC since anti-HIV therapy became standard. People who develop ADC today tend to be “sicker” than those who developed it before the use of anti-HIV therapy. One early study from England supports this theory.

The British study found that only 2% of people with AIDS taking AZT developed ADC from 1982–1988, compared to 20% of those not on AZT. The incidence of ADC dropped from 53% in 1987 (before the arrival of AZT) to 3% in 1988 (after the arrival of AZT).

Early in the epidemic, many new AIDS cases were attributed to ADC. These newly-diagnosed people often had ADC but no other AIDS-related condition. Many doctors report that they are no longer seeing people who have just ADC. It has increasingly become a disease of late-stage AIDS when people suffer from multiple infections.