Neuropathology of AIDS in Children

Abstract

The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) was first recognized in 1981, when reports appeared that described the unexplained occurrence of opportunistic infections in homosexual men in Los Angeles and New York City (Gottlieb et al, 1981; Masur et al, 1981). A similar syndrome was soon recognized in persons who used illicit drugs by the intravenous route and in patients who had received blood products, including hemophiliacs (Davis et al, 1983; Small et al, 1983). By 1983 it became apparent that AIDS could also occur in children, many of whose parents either had AIDS or were at risk of developing AIDS (GIeske et al, 1983; Rubinstein et al, 1983). That same year and the following year, the retrovirus that causes AIDS, initially termed lymphadenopathy virus (LAV), human T-cell lymphotropic virus Type III (HTLV-III), and AIDS retrovirus (ARV), now called human immunodeficiency virus Type 1 (HIV-1), was isolated and characterized (Barre-Sinoussi et al, 1983; Gallo et al, 1984; Levy et al, 1984). These discoveries led to improved understanding of AIDS and its transmission from one person to another, and also facilitated the study of the disease in children.