Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome in Infants

Abstract

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) was first believed to be confined to male homosexuals.^1-4Subsequently, the same syndrome has been seen among intravenous (IV) drug users,⁵Haitians,⁶hemophiliacs^7,8and other recipients of blood products, and, more recently, in female sexual partners of patients with AIDS.⁹This ever broadening spectrum of AIDS victims has raised the possibility of a causative transmissible agent(s). The discovery of a condition similar to AIDS in infants and their mothers^10,11is probably the most important step in elucidating the dissemination of the disease to the heterosexual population. Early in 1982, my colleagues and I described what we believed to be the first five infants with an AIDS-like disease.¹⁰Since then, the number of cases rose to seven by July 1982,¹¹13 by January 1983,¹²and 26 by July 1983. We identified these children in the Bronx, a borough of