Severe Acquired Immunodeficiency in Male... : New England Journal of Medicine (original) (raw)

Severe Acquired Immunodeficiency in Male Homosexuals, Manifested by Chronic Perianal Ulcerative Herpes Simplex Lesions

Frederick P. Siegal
Carlos Lopez
Glenn S. Hammer
Arthur E. Brown
Stephen J. Kornfeld
Jonathan Gold
Joseph Hassett
Shalom Z. Hirschman
Charlotte Cunningham-Rundles
Bernard R. Adelsberg
David M. Parham
Marta Siegal
Susanna Cunningham-Rundles
Donald Armstrong

New England Journal of Medicine

305

(

)

1439

1444

December 10, 1981

| DOI: 10.1056/NEJM198112103052403

Abstract

Four homosexual men presented with gradually enlarging perianal ulcers, from which herpes simplex virus was cultured. Each patient had a prolonged course characterized by weight loss, fever, and evidence of infection by other opportunistic microorganisms including cytomegalovirus, Pneumocystis carinii, and Candida albicans. Three patients died; Kaposi’s sarcoma developed in the fourth. All were found to have depressed cell-mediated immunity, as evidenced by skin anergy, lymphopenia, and poor or absent responses to plant lectins and antigens in vitro. Natural-killer-cell activity directed against target cells infected with herpes simplex virus was depressed in all patients. The absence of a history of recurrent infections or of histologic evidence of lymphoproliferative or other neoplastic diseases suggests that the immune defects were acquired. (N Engl J Med. 1981; 305:1439-44.)