Opportunistic Infection in Previously Healthy Women

doi:10.1059/0003-4819-97-4-533

Opportunistic Infection in Previously Healthy Women

Initial Manifestations of a Community-Acquired Cellular Immunodeficiency

Bethesda, Maryland; New York, Valhalla, and Elmhurst, New York; and Hackensack, New Jersey

Abstract

Opportunistic infections and unusual tumors have been reported in an unprecedented outbreak of community-acquired cellular immune deficiency among homosexual and drug-abusing men. We report five women with the same syndrome. The women were residents of metropolitan New York City closely associated with drug abuse either by personal use (four patients) or close sexual contact with an abuser (one patient). One patient was bisexual. All five patients developed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia as well as combinations of other opportunistic infections including oral Candida, disseminated mycobacteria, and ulcerative herpes simplex infections. All patients had marked depression of cellular immune function. Three patients died. The appearance of this syndrome in women has important implications with regard to the epidemiology and etiology of this emerging syndrome.

Article and Author Information

▸From the Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland; The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Queens Hospital Center Affiliation Long Island Jewish-Hillside Medical Center, Lenox Hill Hospital, and the Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, New York; Hackensack Medical Center, Hackensack, New Jersey; Westchester County Medical Center, Valhalla, New York; and the City Hospital Center, Elmhurst, New York.
▸Requests for reprints should be addressed to Henry Masur, M.D.; Clinical Center, Room 10-D-48, National Institutes of Health; Bethesda, MD 20205.