Brief Report: Prevalence of Latent Rheumatic Heart Disease Among HIV-Infected Children in Kampala, Uganda

Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) remains highly prevalent in resource-constrained settings around the world, including countries with high rates of HIV/AIDS. Although both are immune-mediated diseases, it is unknown whether HIV modifies the risk or progression of RHD. We performed screening echocardiography to determine the prevalence of latent RHD in 488 HIV-infected children aged 5-18 in Kampala, Uganda. The overall prevalence of borderline/definite RHD was 0.82% (95% confidence interval: 0.26% to 2.23%), which is lower than the published prevalence rates of 1.5%-4% among Ugandan children. There may be protective factors that decrease the risk of RHD in HIV-infected children.