AIDS in India: a report of three cases with review of literatures.

Sera from 3500 individuals including patients of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, patients with sexually transmitted diseases, leprosy, jail inmates, healthy laboratory workers and patients on hemodialysis were screened for antibodies against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as a sero surveillance exercise of one of the centers set up by the India Council of Medical Research at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Candigarh. Three individuals were found to be strongly positive by ELISA using the Wellcozyme kit, with no background noise in the population studies. These three patients were also evaluated by the Western blot technique and showed strong antibody reaction to all the major gene products. It was also possible to ascertain the approximate incubation period of infection in a case who rapidly developed full blown AIDS and died of wasting syndrome. Comprehensive data of 14 cases was also collected from all the centers in India and in every case one could trace the contact outside India. None of the 3 cases studied at our center had Kaposi's sarcoma. These observations could be important landmarks in the epidemiology of AIDS in India.