Prevalence of HIV and associated factors among visceral leishmaniasis cases in an endemic area of Northeast Brazil

• Published in: Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical
• Main Authors: Gardenia de Oliveira Santos, Nathalia Priscila Sales de Jesus, Juliana Vasconcelos Cerqueira-Braz, Victor Santana Santos, Ligia Mara Dolce de Lemos
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical (SBMT) 2019
• Subjects: Visceral leishmaniasis; HIV; Co-infection; Brazil; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1590/0037-8682-0257-2018; https://doaj.org/article/08b5da4fca8f40f288031a27a55be060

Abstract INTRODUCTION Cases of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) and HIV co-infection have increased worldwide. We investigated the prevalence of HIV and associated factors among VL patients in Sergipe state, Brazil. METHODS We conducted a population-based study of all cases of VL and HIV reported in Sergipe from 1999 to 2015. RESULTS We studied a total of 917 patients; 41 (4.5%) co-infection cases were detected. VL-HIV co-infected patients were more likely to have weight loss, cough, treatment failure or loss to follow-up and death. CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of VL-HIV co-infection was high and co-infected patients were more likely to have adverse outcomes.