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Comments on the First National Conference on AIDS, which was held in Bombay, India, on March 28-29, 1992 by the Society for the Prevention of AIDS and the Government of Maharashtra. Statistics on HIV infection among prostitutes in Bombay, Pune, and Madras who have been infected by heterosexual transmission; Long incubation period; More.

Out of 200 children suffering from Indian childhood cirrhosis studied during a five-year period, histologic confirmation of the disease was available in 141. Two out of 2l siblings also had ICC. In a pair of the twins while one had ICC, the other had fatty change and focal necrosis in the liver. The disease appears to be universally fatal. The hepatic lesion essentially consists of severe and continuing parenchyma! injury, progressive interstitial fibrosis leading rapidly to architectural disorganization, inflammatory reaction and poor hepatocytic regeneration, Intracellular hyaline forms a prominent feature and is often of diagnostic and prognostic value. Initial lesion in the disease is unknown though the 2 cases available with us and one of the twins showed non-specific changes unlike viral hepatitis. Even the established lesion is different from hepatic alteration in viral hepatitis. There seems to be at present no definite clue to the etiopathogenesis of the disease. Many aspects of the disease point against a viral or nutritional etiology. The role of toxins is to be explored. The liver cells of children suffering from ICC fail in certain respects to attain maturity. This and the role of heredity, viruses and toxins needs further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In rats rendered vitamin A-deficient, there was a marked atrophy of the thymus and the spleen. To a large extent, but not completely, these changes were a result of the concomitant protein-calorie undernutrition. In the thymus the cortex was depleted of lymphocytes. The number of germinal centres was reduced in the spleen. The incorporation of [³H-methyl]thymidine into DNA in cells derived from thymus and spleen of deficient animals was six times lower than in normal littermate controls. On administration of sheep erythrocytes (SRBC), the number of plaque-forming cells per million nucleated spleen cells in deficient animals was 73±6, as compared with 141±36 in normal controls Similar observations were made on the titres of haemagglutinins and haemolysins formed in response to SRBC, The response of vitamin A plus protein-calorie-deficient animals to diphtheria and tetanus toxoid injection was poorer than the pair-fed controls. These studies demonstrate an important influence of vitamin A and protein-calorie nutrition on lymphoid organs and on immune responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]