To the Editor: The New York City Department of Health conducted a follow-up study of the first 1410 cases of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) reported in New York City to quantify more accurately the morbidity, mortality, and clinical and outpatient course of the disease. Data on 94 per cent (1319 of 1410) of the cases were collected over a month's time by telephone and in face-to-face interviews with the patients' clinicians. The cases had first been reported from July 1981 to January 1984.Of the 1319 patients, 254 (19 per cent) were lost to follow-up. Of the remaining 1065, . . .