ABSTRACT
Disseminated infection with Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare is the most common systemic bacterial infection in American patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Blood cultures for mycobacteria were obtained from 50 severely ill Ugandan patients fulfilling the World Health Organization criteria for AIDS and considered late in the course of their illness; 98pc had antibody to HIV by ELISA. All blood cultures were negative. These data suggest that disseminated infection with M. avium-intracellulare is infrequent in Ugandan patients with AIDS; if it occurs at all
Subject(s)
Adult , BCG Vaccine , Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay , HIV Antibodies/analysis , Middle Aged , Mycobacterium , Sepsis/epidemiologyABSTRACT
In order to compare the seroepidemiology of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); hepatitis B virus; delta agent and Treponema pallidum infections in two rural populations living in north Uganda (Kitgum district) and in central Burundi (Butezi; Ruyigi region); 448 sera were tested for HBS-Ag; HBS-Ab; and anti-HIV antibodies and screened for syphilis using the T. pallidum haemagglutination (TPHA) test. HBS-Ag positive sera were also tested for anti-delta antibodies. Overall seropositivity rates in healthy subjects; outpatients and inpatients (non-AIDS) were 14.2pc and 9.5pc in Kitgum district and Butezi; respectively. The prevalence of HBS-Ag and HBS-Ab ranged from 10.0pc to 15.6pc and from 66.2pc to 68.9pc; respectively. In north Uganda the rates of anti-delta positivity were 3.1pc in the overall population and 30.6pc in the HBS-Ag positive subjects. No serum obtained in Butezi was anti-delta positive. In Ugandan people; 64.0pc of anti-HIV positive and 25.8pc of anti-HIV negative patients were also TPHA-positive (P less than 0.01). For Butezi the corresponding figures were 21.4pc and 1.6pc respectively (P less than 0.04). On the contrary; no correlation was found between either anti-HIV or TPHA positives and seropositivity for B and delta hepatitis serological markers. The study demonstrated an association between seropositivities for HIV and T. pallidum (TPHA); suggesting common patterns of transmission. On the contrary; no association seemed to exist between HBV and HIV infections