AIDS-DEFINING CONDITIONS IN AFRICANS RESIDENT IN THE UNITED-KINGDOM

A retrospective study of 55 HIV-1 seropositive African patients living in the UK, seen between January 1986 and November 1993, showed a tota l of 26 (47%) patients with AIDS. Thirty-one (56%) had symptomatic HIV disease at the time of presentation of whom 19 (34.5%) had an AIDS de fining condition. Tuberculosis was the most common AIDS defining illne ss, accounting for 27% of all initial AIDS diagnoses, followed by Pneu mocystis carinii pneumonia and oesophageal candidiasis in 19% each and chronic mucocutaneous genital herpes in 15%. The mean CD4 count at th e time of the first AIDS defining event was 91 x 10/mm(3) (range 4-320 x 10/mm(3)). The profile of AIDS defining illnesses was different to published data of homosexual men and injecting drug users in the UK. T his has practical implications when considering differential diagnoses and screening as well as prophylaxis for opportunistic infections in this group of patients.