HIV SEROPREVALENCE AMONG CHILDREN ADMITTED IN A GENERAL PEDIATRICS HOSPITAL IN SÁO PAULO 985

Abstract

Brazil has the largest number of AIDS cases in the Americas after the United States and most of the cases are concentrated in S. Paulo city. Santa Casa is a tertiary general hospital in downtown Sao Paulo. The study enrolled 283 children under two years old admitted between April 1994 and May 1995 in a general pediatric ward. Every child was evaluated for HIV associated symptoms and after maternal consent, collected blood for HIV-1 specific antibody using an enzyme linked immune absorbent assay. Tests that resulted positive were repeated. All the mothers were asked about behaviors risk factors for HIV infections. The children were admitted to the hospital due to respiratory infections (35.9%), diarrhea (22.3%), meningitis (5.3%), sepsis(4.3%) and others (32.2%). Parents behavior risks for HIV infection were present in 30.8%. Of the 283 children enrolled in the study 24 (8.5%) were HIV seropositive, 9 of then admitted due to diarrhea (14% of the diarrhea children), 10 due to acute respiratory infections (6.8% of the acute respiratory infections children) and 5 with others diagnosis. Of the 24 seropositive children, 10 had HIV associated symptoms like oral thrush, prolonged diarrhea, prolonged fever or failure to thrive. Those findings were also present in 24.2% of the seronegative children. Behavior risk of parents were present in 18 (75%) of the 24 HIV positive children and absent in 6(25%). We concluded that HIV infections are surprisingly prevalent in our hospital and in communities where behavior risk are frequent it is useful to screen all the admitted patients for implementation of preventive measures.