Description
A 26 year old Jamaican woman was diagnosed with HTLV-1 associated adult T cell leukaemia after an admission with severe dermatological problems, a meningo-encephalitis and a life-threatening Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. She had been resident in the UK for two and a half years and the first symptoms coincided with the birth of her fourth child, 7 months before admission. The unusual features of this presentation were: delayed confirmation of the diagnosis due to 2 negative skin biopsies; young age at presentation; recent childbirth; the occurrence of multiple opportunistic infections (disseminated herpes simplex virus, CMV pneumonitis and retinitis; and PCP) in association with an acute lymphopenia.
