Among HIV-infected patients, greater age, lower Karnofsky score, lesser money spent on food every day, lower baseline hemoglobin, stage 4 HIV disease, lower CD4 and CD3 cell counts, higher viral load, and having chronic diarrhea, oral ulcer, peripheral neuropathy, skin rash, and oral thrush were all associated with increased risk of mortality in univariate analyses (data not shown). The gene discussed is CD4; the disease is peripheral neuropathy.