As of November 25, 1983, Canada's Laboratory Centre for Disease
Control (LCDC) has received reports of 51 cases of AIDS. Patients
have ranged in age from 20 to 53 years, with 80% occurring in the
20-
to 39-year age group. Forty-four (86%) were males. Forty-nine
percent of all patients were homosexuals; however, the number of
heterosexual patients (43%) is increasing; most are Haitians, and
two
are hemophilia patients.
Twenty-eight AIDS patients were Canadian-born; 17 were Haitian;
and the remaining six were either born in other countries or of
unknown birthplace. Twenty-three (45%) of these patients resided
in
Quebec; 17 (33%), in Ontario; six (12%), in British Columbia; two
(4%), in Nova Scotia; one (2%), in Alberta; one (2%), in Manitoba;
and
one (2%), in Newfoundland. The onset of AIDS in three patients
occurred in 1979; in four, in 1980; in eight, in 1981; in 17, in
1982;
and in 17, in 1983 (up to November 25); dates of onset are unknown
in
the remaining two.
Symptoms, including prodromal complaints, were as follows:
excessive weight loss (20%), generalized lymphadenopathy (16%),
fever
(15%), dyspnea (10%), oral thrush (10%), and skin lesions (5%).
Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) was diagnosed in 11 (22%) patients,
Pneumocystis
carinii pneumonia (PCP) in 27 (53%), and other opportunistic
infections in the remainder. KS and PCP were the only diagnoses in
14, while multiple infections with Candida albicans,
cytomegalovirus,
herpes simplex virus, Toxoplasma gondii, and Cryptococcus
neoformans
were found in 22 KS or PCP patients. The opportunistic infections
group included combinations of these same organisms with one
Histoplasma capsulatum infection. Mycobacterium tuberculosis was
isolated in seven Haitian and two Canadian-born patients. One
isolate
each of M. avium-intracellulare, M. terrae, and M. scrofulaceum was
reported.
The highest mortality rate (65%) occurred among patients of
Haitian origin, with toxoplasmosis being the fatal infection in six
of
the 11 deaths. The mortality rate in the homosexual group was 48%,
with PCP accounting for 50%.
Infants have not been included in these statistics because of
the
uncertainty in distinguishing their illnesses from previously
described congenital immunodeficiency syndromes. Four such reports
have reached LCDC, three involving children of Haitian origin and
one
possibly associated with exchange transfusions shortly after birth.
Reported in Canada Diseases Weekly Report, 1983;9:186-7, by S
Handzel,
MD, Bureau of Epidemiology, LCDC, Ottawa, Ontario.
Disclaimer
All MMWR HTML documents published before January 1993 are electronic conversions from ASCII text into HTML. This conversion may have resulted in character translation or format errors in the HTML version. Users should not rely on this HTML document, but are referred to the original MMWR paper copy for the official text, figures, and tables. An original paper copy of this issue can be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), Washington, DC 20402-9371; telephone: (202) 512-1800. Contact GPO for current prices.
**Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to mmwrq@cdc.gov.
