San Gabriel Valley : 54 New AIDS Cases Found

New county statistics for the first half of 1993 show that hospitals and doctors in the San Gabriel Valley reported diagnosing 54 new cases of AIDS.

Countywide, 922 new AIDS cases had been diagnosed and reported to health officials by June 30. In all, medical officials throughout the county reported 4,002 patients with AIDS, with most of the patients having been previously diagnosed. County officials say there is often a lag time of a year or more between the time a patient is diagnosed as having AIDS and when that fact gets reported to the county Department of Health Services.

AIDS patients are those who have not only tested positive for the AIDS virus, but who have developed symptoms of the disease. Health officials say there will be far more cases of AIDS diagnosed and reported this year because of new standards for reporting the disease.

New federal guidelines have broadened the definition of an AIDS case to include several conditions, principally pulmonary tuberculosis, recurrent pneumonia and invasive cervical cancer. Also included will be all HIV-infected persons whose immune systems have reached a level based on white blood cell counts where there is an increased risk of contracting numerous diseases.