AIDS in Haitian immigrants and in a Caucasian woman closely associated with Haitians

Abstract

In Montreal the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) was seen in eight Haitian immigrants and one Caucasian woman who had lived with Haitian immigrants for 3 years before the onset of her illness. AIDS was characterized by opportunistic infections alone in seven patients, by opportunistic infection and Kaposi's sarcoma in one patient and by chronic generalized lymphadenopathy in one patient. Five of the patients had presented with Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections 1 to 12 months before the onset of opportunistic infections. All nine patients were found to have recall anergy by skin testing for delayed hypersensitivity. Enumeration of the lymphocyte subpopulations in three patients showed a marked inversion of the ratio of helper to suppressor T lymphocytes. Six of the patients died as a result of the opportunistic infections; autopsies showed no recognizable causes of immunodeficiency. Thus, there is in Montreal a third clustering of AIDS cases in North America related to Haitian immigrants.