Paediatric AIDS in Calabar

Abstract

Summary: Six children with AIDS, aged between eight and 27 months, are reported. As these patients and their mothers were HIV-positive, the mode of transmisssion was considered to be vertical. In the seventh, well and asymptomatic, but HIV-positive infant, transmission of the infection was through transfusion of contaminated blood that was donated by an HIV-positive father. Of the three fathers screened, two tested positive for HIV. Four of the seven HIV positive infants originated from the Cameroon, while three were resident in Nigeria. The disease manifested within the first four months of life in five patients and at the age of 14 months in one patient. Marasmic features, chronic diarrhoea, pneumonia, generalized lymphadenopathy, oropharyngeal candidiasis and dermatoses were the main clinical features. Management of the patients and the families included symp tomatic treatment and counselling. Four of the patients died, three of these in the hospital and one at home.