Pulmonary diseases in pediatric AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa

The authors reviewed medical articles and abstracts presented at international AIDS Conferences, on pulmonary diseases among HIV-infected children in sub-Saharan Africa. The most important pulmonary complications of AIDS in children are bacterial infections in 37 % of the patients described in clinical studies, and 42.3 % of the patients in the only documented autopsy study on this subject. Pulmonary tuberculosis is the second most important disease in clinical studies. in 31.4 % of the patients. Results were quite different in the autopsy study, with pulmonary tuberculosis in only 1.2 % of the cases. Pneumocystis carinii pneumoniae, was confirmed only in the autopsy study, accounting for 14.1 % of the pulmonary diseases in AIDS, in children. Among the other pulmonary complications which are usually presented as interstitial diseases, lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia was found in 1.2-22.4 % of the cases. However, the etiology of interstitial disease remained unknown in 17.9-31.4 % of the cases. Reviewing this literature allowed to point out that bacterial infections were the most important causes of pulmonary complications of AIDS in children, in sub-Saharan Africa.