Perinatally acquired AIDS.

PIP: AIDS is spreading epidemically across India despite Indian Council of Medical Research reports that only 6683 people in the country are HIV-seropositive. The first seropositive pregnant woman was reported in 1986 and the first seropositive infant was reported October 1987. Seropositivity has increased across the board ever since. The clinical course of perinatal HIV infection varies according to latency period, age of onset, signs and symptoms at presentation, and the degree of neurological manifestations. This paper reports findings from the diagnosis, treatment, and subsequent autopsy of the first reported case of perinatally acquired AIDS in India. The four kilogram weight patient presented to an outpatient department on June 19, 1990, at age one month from an orphanage with abdominal distension and loose motions of unknown duration. The child was in poor general condition with no available detailed history. Physicians would be ill advised to diagnose AIDS in infants based solely upon the presence of antibodies to HIV in subjects' bloodstreams. It is certainly possible that such antibodies simply result from the passive transfer of maternal antibodies. The possibility of AIDS-related complex was, however, considered with this infant given the presence of extensive oropharyngeal and perianal candidiasis, chronic diarrhea, failure to thrive, recurrent bacterial infections with laboratory evidence of lymphocytopenia, and the clinical course of the baby. The infant died at the age of 47 days. Post-mortem histologic evidence of lymphocytic depletion in the thymus and spleen and Peyer's patches of gastrointestinal tract suggest an AIDS diagnosis. Greater suspicion of AIDS in infants presenting with multiple opportunistic infections and unusual disease courses could potentially lead to the diagnosis of many more cases of AIDS in the country.^ieng

Effect of chlorine gas leak on the pulmonary functions of school children.

Pulmonary function tests (PFT) were performed on 84 children studying in a Municipal School, near a plant manufacturing chemicals in Chembur, a suburb of Bombay, from where large amounts of chlorine gas leaked out on 30th August, 1985. It was found that only 23.8% had normal PFT's. 66.7% showed an obstructive pattern and 9.5% showed a restrictive pattern of PFT's. This is a preliminary report to establish the prevalence of lower PFT values in children staying in an area of air pollution in Bombay.