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Article
May 1987

Hairy Leukoplakia: A New Disease of the Oral Mucosa

Author Affiliations

Department of Dermatology University of California Medical Center Suite 808 350 Parnassus Ave San Francisco, CA 94117

Arch Dermatol. 1987;123(5):585-587. doi:10.1001/archderm.1987.01660290053014
Abstract

Early in the epidemic of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), recurrent candidal infections of the mouth and perianal areas were recognized as a common clinical occurrence in individuals who were infected with the human immunosuppressive virus (HIV) and who were showing early signs of immunosuppression.1 Oral candidiasis is extremely common, presents with a typical clinical picture, is easily diagnosed and treated, and pursues a variable clinical course from one patient to another. In some individuals, treatment with oral nystatin or intermittent clotrimazole therapy is sufficient to control the disease and completely eliminate clinical evidence of infection. Candidal infections may recur frequently in some patients, and only rarely in others, and seem to have no relation to the presence or absence of other infections, such as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia or those caused by Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare, or to the individual patient's degree of immunosuppression. Some patients who are profoundly immunosuppressed, with

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