1. Opportunistic Infection in Previously Healthy Women
- Author
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Sharon R Lewin, Joel A. Sender, Shlomo Maayan, Zelman Arlen, Gary P. Wormser, Jerome A. Ernst, José A. Girón, Susanna Cunningham-Rundles, Frederick P. Siegal, Chester W. Lerner, Michael L. Tapper, Robert S. Siebken, Henry Masur, Mary Ann Michelis, Usha Setia, Peter Nicholas, Donald Armstrong, and Gold Jw
- Subjects
Adult ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Pediatrics ,Substance-Related Disorders ,Opportunistic infection ,Candidiasis, Oral ,Epidemiology ,Internal Medicine ,medicine ,Humans ,Depression (differential diagnoses) ,Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome ,Immunity, Cellular ,Mycobacterium Infections ,business.industry ,Pneumonia, Pneumocystis ,Outbreak ,Herpes Simplex ,Homosexuality ,Syndrome ,General Medicine ,medicine.disease ,Substance abuse ,Pneumonia ,Pneumocystis carinii ,Immunology ,Etiology ,Female ,New York City ,business ,Mycobacterium avium - Abstract
Opportunistic infections and unusual tumors have been reported in an unprecedented outbreak of community-acquired cellular immune deficiency among homosexual and drug-abusing men. We report five women with the same syndrome. The women were residents of metropolitan New York City closely associated with drug abuse either by personal use (our patients) or close sexual contact with an abuser (one patient). One patient was bisexual. All five patients developed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia as well as combinations of other opportunistic infections including oral candida, disseminated mycobacteria, and ulcerative herpes simplex infections. All patients had marked depression of cellular immune function. Three patients died. The appearance of this syndrome in women has important implications with regard to the epidemiology and etiology of this emerging syndrome.
- Published
- 1982
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