Disease classification systems and surveillance definitions are ordinarily tools for medical professionals, not matters for political debate and patient advocacy. It is hard to imagine a protest march complaining about the classification system for colon cancer. But when it comes to AIDS, nothing is ordinary.

The Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) case definition of AIDS is used by public health officials, researchers, clinicians, hospital administrators, disability specialists, insurance administrators, health economists, legislators, social workers, policy makers, and the media. It has influenced the way the HIV epidemic is perceived, managed, and funded.

It is not surprising, then, that the CDC definition of AIDS and its proposed revision is currently the subject of intense scrutiny. The case definition has transcended epidemiology to become a symbol for the inadequacies of the U.S. government's response to the HIV epidemic, and a particular symbol for the failure to address the needs of HIV-infected women.

In his compelling poem, “Talking to the Family,” physician poet John Stone describes the presentation of unbearable news, the death of a mother, to the awaiting family holding the now-motherless infant. First the physician puts on his white coat and reveals the death to the family. Then he takes off the coat, drives home, and replaces a light bulb in the hall. In seven short sentences the reader is drawn into a barren description of tragedy that seems cold and methodical. In line eight, the center of the poem, a single-line stanza thuds heavily, mimicking the message he bears: “I will tell them.”