Oral Manifestations of HIV/AIDS
The scarce epidemiological data available on oral manifestations of HIV in developing countries are difficult to interpret because these studies are not standardized (Holmes and Stephan 2002). In the study groups, the prevalence of oral lesions in Africa ranged from 15 percent to more than 90 percent of infected individuals; in India the prevalence was 72 percent; and in Thailand it was 82 percent. Reviews are available on the different studies performed on oral manifestations of HIV and AIDS (Naidoo and Chikte 1999; Patton and others 2002).
Candida infections, oral hairy leukoplakia, oral ulcers, and Kaposi's sarcoma are some of the common oral manifestations of HIV and AIDS. Notably, Kaposi's sarcomas were never detected in the Asian populations studied in India, Singapore, and Thailand but were seen in South African, Zambian, and Zimbabwean studies (Arendorf and others 1998; Hodgson 1997; Holmes and Stephan 2002; Lim and others 2001; Nittayananta and Chungpanich 1997; Ranganathan and others 2000). The presence of oral candidiasis and hairy leukoplakia alone or at the same time in an apparently healthy individual could be an early indicator of the undetected HIV infection progressing to AIDS. Those signs may be used as indicators during clinical examinations in developing countries where technology for laboratory tests is not available or is too expensive (Greenspan and Greenspan 2002; Holmes and Stephan 2002).
