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To say something is "immuno-compromising" is quite a leap from saying it leads to infection. Are colds and flus immuno-compromising? This kind of intellectual sloppiness is commonplace in discussions of AIDS. And, in fact, it is a big question how much we really know about environmental/lifestyle impacts on the immune system and especially CD4/CD8 ratios. What happens to CD4 and CD8 counts during colds and flu? What is the effect on CD4/CD8 ratios of all-night partying, psychological stress, heavy drinking, poppers, coke, speed, crystal, heroin, Factor VIII, anabolic steroids, long-term prophylactic use of antibiotics, malnutrition, aging, DNA chain terminators like AZT, protease inhibitors, repeated exposure to a multiplicity of pathogens and foreign proteins due to promiscuous sex or poor sanitation, etc.? How reliable are CD4/CD8 assays in clinical practice? What is the statistical distribution of measured CD4/CD8 ratios cross-sectionally and longitudinally, and how does the variability correlate with the environmental and lifestyle factors just mentioned? Since the construction of AIDS as a unitary disease and not a grab-bag of separate diseases depends rather critically on the assumption that CD4/CD8 ratios tell us a lot, one would hope that these questions have been thoroughly investigated and that any confounding issues they raise have been resolved. One would hope that is the case, but whether one would be justified in that hope, I'm not so sure.