Opportunistic diseases reported in AIDS patients: frequencies, associations, and trends

Abstract

To look for associations and trends in the reported frequencies of particular opportunistic diseases in AIDS patients, we analyzed diseases in the 30,632 AIDS patients in the United States reported to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) by 9 February 1987. Compared with all other AIDS patients, children were three times more likely to have cytomegalovirus disease, homosexual men were seven times more likely to have Kaposi's sarcoma, and Haitian-born patients were six, 14 and 13 times more likely to have toxoplasmosis, tuberculosis, and chronic enteric isosporiasis, respectively. The proportions of patients initially presenting with particular diseases have changed; from before 1983 to 1986, the proportion with Pneumocystis pneumonia climbed from 41.9 to 63.6% and the proportion with extrapulmonary cryptococcosis rose from 4.5 to 6.2%, while Kaposi's sarcoma fell from 30.9 to 14.2%, chronic herpes simplex declined from 4.2 to 2.1%, and toxoplasmosis of the brain dropped from 3.5 to 1.5%.