[Kaposi's disease. 2 recent cases].
Known since 1872, the multifocal angiosarcoma called Kaposi's sarcoma takes different forms in different communities. It develops slowly among the mediterranean populations and Jewish Central Europe and most rapidly among Bantus, in Africa, and white homosexuals. Another aspect of the disease has been described in patients with transplanted kidney, where it seems to be associated with immunosuppressive treatments. The recent outbreak of Kaposi's sarcoma among homosexuals in New York and San Francisco raises new and difficult problems concerning its aetiology, as the outbreak cannot be entirely explained by pressure from sexually transmissible diseases. Having observed two new cases in France, the authors have attempted to re-evaluate the pathophysiological factors of the disease, the most constant of which seems to be a considerable degree of immunodepression, perhaps partly due to chronic infection.