Abstract
Two fatal cases of AIDS-like illnesses, one of fatal aggressive Kaposi's sarcoma, the other of disseminated mycobacterial infection are described. Both occurred in apparently healthy young Nigerian males without evidence of underlying immunosuppressive disease. Neither patient had lymphopenia, but both had polyclonal hyperglobulinaemia and displayed cutaneous anergy to tuberculin-PPD. The only identified risk factors for the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) were previous parenteral drug injections at local drug stores (patients 1 and 2) and a blood transfusion received two years previously (patient 2). Although both patients were seronegative for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) types 1 and 2, these illnesses are strikingly similar to AIDS, and may have been caused by related retroviruses which did not cross-react with conventional HIV antigens.