[Immunologic findings in HIV infected children with bacterial infections]

Bacterial infections are a major cause of illness in HIV-infected children. HIV-infected children with severe dysfunction of cellular and humoral immunity are particularly vulnerable.

We conducted a retrospective study to analyse the incidence and spectrum of bacterial infections in HIV-infected children compared to HIV-exposed but not infected controls related to their immunological status. Data collected during 1985 to May 1993 were evaluated considering 333 HIV-infected and 81 controls.

During observation time 359 episodes (29% of the visits) of purulent rhinitis were diagnosed in HIV-infected children compared to the controls (53 episodes/8%); p = 0.0001. Comparable results were seen in otitis media. 178 episodes/14% were found in HIV-infected children and 66 episodes/10% in the controls (p = 0.001). 53 episodes/5% of bacterial pneumonia were represented in HIV-infected versus 11 episodes/2% in controls (p = 0.001). The increase of lymphocyte immune defect correlated to an increase of bacterial infections. This alterations were particularly observed in HIV-infected children with bacterial pneumonia. Severe dysfunction of cellular immunity was found in children with recurrent pneumonia compared to children with only one episode of bacterial pneumonia. The proliferate response of peripheral blood lymphocyte to pokeweed mitogen (13,351 cpm versus 3080 cpm); p = 0.009 and Concanavalin A (12,607 cpm versus 2470 cpm); p = 0.01 was significantly reduced in both groups, although the defect was much more pronounced in the group with the recurrent pneumonia.

Our observations results showed that bacterial respiratory tract infections occurred significantly more frequently in HIV-infected children compared to an age related control group. Not only the occurrence of opportunity infections but also severe bacterial infections especially recurrent pneumonia are associated with a defect in cell-mediated immunity.