Leprosy and other opportunistic infections in India

[Guest guest]

A recent report from Joe " [] Rajasthan:

250 AIDS patients, over 50,000 HIV positive " (based on a

January 20 2001 news article:

<http://www.indiaexpress.com/news/health/20010120-0.html>),

raises the interesting and important question of leprosy

being an opportunistic infection (OI) in the HIV+ person.

I have been studying prevalence rates of OIs worldwide with

a view toward shifting the paradigm on vaccine developments

from a focus on vaccines against HIV to multivalent killed

vaccines against pathogens that would be OIs (see:

<http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2001/jan/opin_010122.html> and

<http://www.edc.org/GLG/hiv-impact/hypermail/0202.html>).

A goal is to characterize OIs as being common versus uncommon,

though also taking into account age distributions.

Can any of you cite examples of or statistics pertaining to

leprosy being opportunistic in HIV+ persons - in India or

elsewhere?

Roulette Wm. , Ph.D. - Director

Institute for Postgraduate Interdisciplinary Studies

P. O. Box 60846

Palo Alto, CA 94306-0846 USA

***ALSO***

Testing Officer,

Testing Office, SCC-11207

California State University, Dominguez Hills

1000 East Street

Carson, CA 90747 USA

(310) 243-2249

(310) 516-3330 Fax

E-Mail: Roulette@...