AIDS-ASSOCIATED KAPOSIS-SARCOMA IN TANZANIANS OF INDIAN ORIGIN - REPORT OF CASES AND REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) was up to the 1980's seen as a rare indolent spo radic disease in Southern Europe and as an endemic disease in East and Central Africa. With the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic a more aggres sive, disseminated type of KS was recognized in HIV infected people wi th AIDS. Interestingly, KS has not been reported in Indians living in Africa for several generations. Recently KS was however, diagnosed in two Tanzanian Indians, both infected with HIV. Clinical and pathologic al studies of these two cases showed the characteristic hallmarks of K S in both HIV infected and uninfected people. From the literature and cancer registry data it appears that KS has been even more rare in Ind ia and other Far Eastern countries, compared to Europe and the America s, with only a few cases reported with and without HIV association. Th e present data and that reported earlier in the literature support the notion of an infectious agent transmitted sexually in the pathogenesi s of KS. Ethnic/genetic factors could also be of importance.