Cytomegalovirus encephalopathy in an infant with congenital acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome.

A female infant born pre-term to a HIV seropositive mother presented at birth with seropositivity for HIV and CMV viruria. At five months of age she developed an AIDS-related complex. Six months later she died from rapidly progressive diffuse encephalopathy. Post mortem examination revealed generalized CMV infection. Neuropathological examination showed a nodular encephalitis with occasional cytomegalic cells containing characteristic CMV inclusion bodies. There was no evidence of HIV encephalitis; immunostaining for HIV antigen (gp 41) was negative. Opportunistic infections in infants with congenital AIDS are the exception. To our knowledge, only one case of CMV encephalitis in an infant with congenital AIDS has been reported previously. In that case, as in the present one, a reactivation of a congenital CMV infection is likely.