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The aims of this study were to analyze the mortality directly attributable to chronic viral hepatitis in HIV-1 infected patients and to investigate the influence of hepatitis virus infections on the survival of this population. A cohort of 328 HIV-1 infected, antiretroviral-treated patients, followed up from 1989 to 1996, was investigated in the study. The median follow-up period of the cohort was 120 weeks. The median baseline CD4 + cell count of the cohort was 303 cells/mm3. Hepatitis C virus, hepatitis B virus and hepatitis D virus infections were present in 214 (65%), 16 (4.9%) and 9 (2.7%) patients, respectively. Sixty-seven (20.4%) subjects died but there was no information on the vital status of 36 patients (11%). The causes of mortality were AIDS in 49 (73%), liver failure in 3 (4.5%) and other causes in 15 (22.4%). The cohort was divided into two groups for survival analysis, the groups consisting of persons infected by a hepatitis virus and persons without hepatitis virus infection. There was no difference in survival between the two groups (p = 0.31, log-rank). It is concluded that mortality among HIV-1/hepatitis virus coinfected patients with moderate to severe immunosuppression is mostly due to AIDS, and that the survival of these subjects is not influenced by the presence of hepatitis virus infections, particularly hepatitis C virus.

Cystic lymphoepithelial lesion is an infrequent disorder involving the saliva glands mainly the parotid gland; however, its frequency has increased coinciding with the epidemics of HIV-1 infection. Three cases of parotid lymphoepithelial lesion in patients with HIV-1 infection, 2 of whom were hemophiliacs and one an ex-intravenous drug addict, are presented. In all the cases the lesion was a painless slow growth right submandibular mass, with no history of inflammation. Two of the patients had a contralateral tumor of the same characteristics which was not studied. Fine needle aspiration puncture was performed in the three patients although diagnosis was obtained by pathologic study following superficial parotidectomy. Cystic lymphoepithelial lesion is an entity to be taken into account on differential diagnosis of cervical masses in patients with HIV infection. In individuals with severe immunosuppression treatment should be conservative.

Two hundred and ninety-four non-transfused prostitutes from Spain, who denied intravenous drug abuse, were tested for hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies. Seventeen (5.78%) of them were seropositive. Both in univariate and correspondence analyses, serological results for hepatitis C were associated with the HIV-1 serostatus (p < 0.001), number of sex partners (p < 0.05) and a history of genital ulcers (p < 0.05). In logistic regression analysis, hepatitis C seropositivity was associated only with HIV-1 infection (adjusted odds ratio = 13.6; 95% confidence interval = 3.3-55.2). These results show that hepatitis C seropositivity is associated with HIV-1 infection in female non-intravenous drug abusing prostitutes. These findings are also consistent with the hypothesis that HCV can be sexually transmitted with low efficiency.