International Journal of STD & AIDS > Volume 19, Number 6 > Pp. 400-405

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Original research articles

Characteristics of HIV-1-associated Kaposi's sarcoma among women and men in South Africa

A Mosam FCDerm MMed (Derm) ^* , H P Hurkchand MSc , E Cassol MMed Sci , T Page MMed Sci ^*, S Cassol PhD , U Bodasing MSc ^*, J Aboobaker FRCP ^*, H Dawood FCP(SA) ^**, G H Friedland MD  and H M Coovadia FCP(Paeds) MD 

^* Department of Dermatology, Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa; Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation; AIDS Immunopathogenesis Unit, DIBIT, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy; MRC Unit for Inflammation and Immunity, Department of Immunology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria; ^** Department of Internal Medicine, Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa; AIDS Programme, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA; Victor Daitz Chair of HIV/AIDS Research, Doris Duke Medical Research Institute, Durban, South Africa

Correspondence to: Dr Anisa Mosam, Room 327, Third Floor, Medical School Private Bag 7, Congella 4013, Durban, South Africa Email: mosama{at}ukzn.ac.za

Despite the increase of HIV-1-associated Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), little is known about HIV-associated KS in the African setting, particularly among women. A descriptive study of the demographic, clinical, immunological and virological features of AIDS-associated KS from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa was undertaken. Consecutively, recruited patients were clinically staged; CD4/CD8 cell counts, HIV-1 viral loads and clinical parameters were evaluated. Of the 152 patients (77 male and 75 female) 99% were black. Females were significantly younger (P = 0.02) and had poorer disease prognosis (odds ratio [OR] = 2.7, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.4–5.4, P = 0.003) and were more likely to have extensive cutaneous KS when compared with males (OR = 3.1, 95% CI = 1.4–6.7, P = 0.003). One-third of patients had coexisting HIV-related disease, most commonly tuberculosis, and these were more frequent in females (56.7 vs. 43.3%). In conclusion, HIV-associated KS in South Africans has an equal female-to-male ratio. Females are younger and have more severe disease than males.

Key Words: HIV/AIDS • Africa • Kaposi's sarcoma • women

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