Acute HTLV III infection associated with exanthema, diagnosed by seroconversion

We report three homosexual men who developed malaise, fever and a roseola-like exanthema which disappeared over 2 weeks. During 3 months follow-up, all three patients felt well and had no symptoms. HTLV III seroconversion was detected several weeks after the acute HTLV III infection. In two of the three cases the Western blot technique was able to detect HTLV III antibodies before they were detectable by the ELISA technique.