Visceral leishmaniasis and HIV/AIDS in Brazil: Are we aware enough?

• Published in: PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
• Main Authors: Marcia Leite de Sousa-Gomes, Gustavo Adolfo Sierra Romero, Guilherme Loureiro Werneck
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2017
• Subjects: Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0005772; https://doaj.org/article/f9880c72417f4506a21c234133e8804c

The urbanization of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) and the concurrent movement of the HIV infection to rural areas in Brazil are possible mechanisms associated with an increased number of Leishmania/HIV coinfected people. This study aimed to describe the clinical and epidemiological profile of VL/HIV coinfected patients and compare this profile to non-coinfected VL patients.Cases of VL/HIV coinfection were obtained through a probabilistic record linkage of databases of VL and AIDS cases from the Brazilian Ministry of Health.We retrieved 760 cases of VL/HIV coinfection, most prevalent in adult males, with incidence ranging from 0.01 to 0.07 cases, per 100.000 population, in 2001 and 2010, respectively. Case-fatality rates were 27.3% in 2001 and 23.2% in 2010. Weakness, weight loss, cough, other associated infections and haemorrhagic phenomena were more commonly found among coinfected patients, which had a fatality rate three times higher as compared to the non-coinfected group. The relapse proportion was two times greater among coinfected (6.3%) than non-coinfected (3.1%).The results found herein contribute to the increase of knowledge of the epidemiological situation of VL/HIV coinfection in Brazil and reinforce the necessity of implementing specific strategies to improve early case detection and efficacious and less toxic treatment in order to achieve lower case-fatality rates.