AIDS Reader

Although adenoviruses are a recognized cause of serious pulmonary and disseminated disease among stem cell transplant recipients, their importance in other immunocompromised patient populations is less clearly documented.

Study Finds Antiretroviral Drugs May Prevent HIV Infection A study involving monkeys found that the use of 2 antiretroviral drugs, emtricitabine (FTC) and tenofovir, prevented transmission of a primate version of HIV (Berman J. Voice of America. February 5, 2008).

Little of promise in terms of HIV prevention science was reported at the 15th annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), held from February 3 to 6, 2008, in Boston. Coupled with several other pieces of disappointing news related to early HIV diagnosis and efficacy of vaginal microbicides, most hope continued to relate to disease treatment.

A 37-year-old man with a 9-year history of HIV infection presented to the emergency department after 5 days of fever, chills, malaise, and a pruritic rash initially on his forehead and arms that spread to his scalp, neck, and legs.

Dermatological disorders may occur in more than 90% of persons infected with HIV. In this setting, skin disorders tend to be more frequent as immunodeficiency progresses. The spectrum of cutaneous diseases includes inflammatory dermatoses, drug reactions, infections, and neoplasms. Johnson and colleagues1 present an unusual case of Sweet syndrome in a 37-year-old HIV-positive man coinfected with Treponema pallidum. Sweet syndrome was originally described by the late English dermatologist Dr Rob

Patients with HIV infection demonstrate an unexpectedly high incidence of bone-related disorders, most notably osteonecrosis

Osteonecrosis, also known as avascular necrosis or aseptic necrosis, refers to ischemic death of the cellular constituents of bone and marrow when it occurs in the epiphyseal or subarticular region. The incidence of osteonecrosis may be increased by as much as 100-fold in HIV-infected persons relative to the general population,1

One time-honored way of acknowledging that a research finding has become mainstream is to see it listed as a clue in the New York Times crossword puzzle.

Yunnan Province opened 7 mobile methadone treatment clinics last year in rural areas along the drug-producing Golden Triangle (Xinhua News Agency. January 5, 2008).

Public health experts once held high hopes that the female condom would give women worldwide the ability to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases.

Nemaline rod myopathy is a rare human neuromuscular disorder defined by the presence of rod-shaped structures infiltrating muscle fibers.

Several reports have documented an increased incidence of smooth muscle tumors in patients with AIDS and in those with other immunocompromised conditions.

Recently the CDC released a report of a study on coinfection with HIV and Mycobacterium tuberculosis that found that many US patients with tuberculosis (TB) are still not being tested for HIV.

Reviewing just a 2-month interval of HIV/AIDS-related publications and announcements, from mid-September to mid-November of 2007, produced discouraging news in 3 key areas: vaccine development, female-initiated barrier protection, and HIV treatment in the resource-poor world.

We evaluated a cohort of persons with late-stage HIV infection currently enrolled in a longitudinal tracking study to determine whether coinfection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is associated with a greater prevalence and/or severity of HIV-associated cognitive-motor complex and distal predominantly sensory peripheral polyneuropathy compared with persons with HIV infection alone

Writing a book about the history of anything is an ambitious undertaking, and this book is no different. For those of us who witnessed HIV from the beginning of its re-corded history, Engel does a good job of hitting the highlights and examining the issues.

Cinti and colleagues1 call further attention to an increasing concern for people living with HIV infection and those providing their care: the increased risk of cancers that are not considered AIDS-defining events.

In patients with HIV/AIDS, multifocal choroiditis has been associated with numerous life-threatening disseminated opportunistic infections. Optic neuropathy in patients with AIDS is also associated with opportunistic infection.

Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8) is associated with Kaposi sarcoma (KS) and 4 lymphoproliferative disorders: multicentric Castleman disease, primary effusion lymphoma, B-cell plasmablastic lymphoma, and germinotrophic lymphoproliferative disorder.

Breathable indoor air has become so commonplace in the United States (and, increasingly, worldwide) that many forget that it has been less than a quarter century since the major push to limit indoor smoking really began to have an impact.

This gay white man was your patient several years ago. He originally presented to you in 1995 with diffuse cutaneous Kaposi sarcoma (KS) and a CD4+ cell count of 15/µL.

Trimeris and its partner Roche said they are withdrawing an application to sell their injectable AIDS drug Fuzeon (enfuvirtide) in a needle-free device. "While the device has shown potential benefit for some patients, we don't believe it's the real alternative delivery option for all patients," said Michelle Zupancic, vice president, HIV, at Roche (Vollmer S. News & Observer [Raleigh]. October 4, 2007).

In 1985, only 7% of AIDS cases occurred among female adults and adolescents older than 13 years, but by 2005, they represented 27% of US AIDS cases.

An independent advisory panel recommended accelerated FDA approval of Merck & Co's drug Isentress (raltegravir) for patients who have drug-resistant strains of HIV (Chong J-R. Los Angeles Times. September 6, 2007). If approved, Isentress would be the first in a new class of AIDS drugs, integrase inhibitors, that aim to prevent HIV from integrating into human DNA during the replication process.

In her case report, Crum-Cianflone1 describes an HIV- infected patient receiving antiretroviral therapy with no history of significant alcohol use and an undetectable HIV-1 RNA level who presented with a recurrent, mildly elevated alanine aminotransferase level.

Sanchez and colleagues1 report a case of histoplasmosis-associated reactive hemophagocytic syndrome in a 61-year-old HIV-infected man. The association of hemophagocytic syndrome with HIV infection is important for several reasons:

The Fourth International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment, and Prevention (4th IAS Conference) was held in Sydney, Australia, from July 22 to 25, 2007.

In a recent study, researchers found a link between a premature aging disease and lipodystrophy related to the use of HIV protease inhibitors (PIs) (Reuters. July 16, 2007).

In 1996, approximately one quarter of the AIDS prevention budget of the CDC was allocated to HIV testing, predominantly for low-risk populations.1 It was their single biggest HIV prevention expenditure.

The 4th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment, and Prevention was held in Sydney, Australia, July 22 to 25, 2007