Viral load and dendritic cells from vertically HIV-infected children and adolescents

Abstract

Background: To determine the epidemiological aspects of tropical endemic limbo-conjunctivitis (telc) as well as the clinical characteristics in the children of 0-15 years old. Methods & Materials: A retrospective and descriptive study was carried out by the service of Ophthalmology of the General Referral Provincial Hospital of Bukavu, South Kivu Province, in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo. This may concern 172 children, from January 2007 to December 2011. Results: On a total of 1168 children consulted, 172 had a diagnosis of telc 14.7% frequent. The median age of the patients with telc was 6 years.The age bracket of less than 5 years was touched with 40.1% of case. The male sex was represented by (57%) of children. The pruritis was the most frequent complaint with 97.1% followedup with friction (94.8%) and brownish coloring (89.5%). The ocular attack was bilateral with (95.9%). The palpebral form was observed in 40.7% of the cases and the stage of evolution was marked respectively by stage II (37.8%) and I (30.8%), the stage IV was represented in 11% of the cases, a particularity for his stage. Conclusion: This study, first of the kind in South-Kivu province, in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo, related to the section from 0 to 15 years old. This study showed that men were the most reached about 57% against 43% for women. The palpebral form(40.7%)was the most frequent and the majority of children had stageII (37.8%) with a particularity for stageIV (11%), a first frequency higher found in Democratic Republic of Congo and in Africa. Telc constitutes in our areas a significant factor of blindness occurrence; it's an invalidating ocular disease if it is not treated on time.