1Undergraduate Student, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia
2Doctoral Student of Medical Science, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia
3Department of Oral Medicine, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia
4Department of Internal MedicineUniversitas Airlangga, Intermediate Care and Infectious Disease Centre, Dr. Soetomo Hospital, Surabaya, Indonesia
5Department of Child Health, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Intermediate Care and Infectious Disease Centre, Dr. Soetomo Hospital, Surabaya, Indonesia
6Division of Oral Medicine, Dental and Oral Health Unit, Dr. Soetomo Hospital, Surabaya, Indonesia
*Corresponding author: Diah Savitri Ernawati Departement of Oral Medicine, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Jl. Mayjen Prof. Dr. Moestopo 47, Surabaya, Indonesia, 60132. Telp: +62315030255. Fax: +62315020256. E-mail: diah-s-e@fkg.unair.ac.id.
Online published on 8 March, 2019.
Strikingly, more than 95% pediatric HIV infections worldwide are in developing countries. Although ART can reduce significantly the risk of HIV transmission to children born from HIV-infected mothers, this can be effective only if the women know their HIV status. In many developing countries, such as Indonesia, the lack of access by pregnant mothers to laboratory facilities may deprive them of knowing their HIV status, thus the opportunity to transmit the disease to their children is high, knowing no preventive intervention is attempted. To date, it is estimated that the number of HIV infected children in Indonesia who are left undiagnosed is still high, therefore a study on clinical markers of HIV that can aid in the diagnosis and predict the severity of the disease among children is critical. In this study, Linear Gingival Erythema is assessed on its correlation to degree of immune suppression to be used as HIV clinical marker in laboratory-poor settings in Indonesia.
HIV-infected children admitted to Soetomo General Hospital between June-October 2017 were screened and examined intraorally for the presence of LGE. Other relevant data were obtained from questionnaire-guided interview to parents/guardians and from patient's medical record.
LGE was found in 21.43% children and statistical analysis shows significant correlation of LGE to degree of immune suppression.
Further study with larger study population size is required to analyze the sensitivity and specificity of LGE to be used as HIV marker in predicting a particular degree of immune suppression, specific to Indonesian pediatric population.
Oral Manifestation, Children with HIV/AIDS, Linear Gingival Erythema, CD4+
