Acute haemorrhagic pancreatitis in HIV positive patients

We present two cases of severe acute haemorrhagic pancreatitis (1,2), in otherwise healthy adults who were HIV positive. Acute pancreatitis is not known to be common in the African communities but the incidence is on the increase (1). Both of them scored between 5 and 6 points on the Ransom scale (3). One of them died despite similar aggressive resuscitation, adequate transfusion with fresh frozen plasma (4,5) and peritoneal lavage (6,7,8) Though Steinberg and Tenner (2) had shown a higher incidence (4-22%) of acute pancreatitis among patients with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in some populations, we are not aware of any observation in literature that same is true in otherwise healthy patients who are HIV positive. We are posting that what we have observed may indeed be human immune deficiency viral haemorrhagic pancreatitis. A prospective study of patients with acute pancreatitis will determine the position.