Use of prednisolone in the treatment of HIV-positive tuberculosis patients.

Corticosteroids are beneficial in the treatment of some forms of tuberculosis, but their role in TB affecting HIV-positive patients is not clear. During a cohort study of tuberculosis patients in Lusaka, Zambia, prednisolone was prescribed for specific indications. Six of 47 (13 per cent) of patients who received prednisolone early in treatment developed herpes zoster, compared with 2 of 118 (2 per cent) of those who did not.

Intestinal parasites in Zambian patients with AIDS.

Previous studies have found a high prevalence of Isospora belli and Cryptosporidium parvum infections in African acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients with chronic diarrhoea. We aimed to determine the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasite in AIDS patients in hospital, not only those with diarrhoea, and to compare them with the general community. Clinically diagnosed AIDS patients in a Zambian teaching hospital were interviewed and examined, and stool specimens were studied for parasite infection.

IgM serum antibodies to phenolic glycolipid-I and clinical leprosy: two years' observation in a community with hyperendemic leprosy.

A village population with hyperendemic leprosy in Papua New Guinea was repeatedly examined for clinical leprosy and for serum IgM antibodies to phenolic glycolipid-I (APGL-I) over 2 years between 1984 and 1986. In 1984, serum APGL-I was elevated in 15% of the subjects without clinical leprosy, and the prevalence of seropositivity was not significantly different in subjects from households with or without leprosy. In 1986, the prevalence of elevated serum APGL-I in leprosy-free subjects had risen to 23%.