Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Pneumocystosis is a fungal infection that most often presents as Pneumocystis pneumonia in people with HIV/AIDS or poor immunity. [1] [7] It usually causes cough, difficulty breathing and fever, and can lead to respiratory failure. [4]
Since the start of the AIDS epidemic, PCP has been closely associated with AIDS. Because it only occurs in an immunocompromised host, it may be the first clue to a new AIDS diagnosis if the patient has no other reason to be immunocompromised (e.g. taking immunosuppressive drugs for organ transplant).
Pneumocystis pneumonia is an important disease of immunocompromised humans, particularly patients with HIV, but also patients with an immune system that is severely suppressed for other reasons, for example, following a bone marrow transplant. In humans with a normal immune system, it is an extremely common silent infection. [4]
Kaposi's Sarcoma (KS) is an extremely common disease that arises in AIDS patients and HIV-infected individuals. The condition is characterized by large purple lesions on the skin and mouth. KS presents itself differently for everyone affected by it, and its symptoms and progression varies from person to person as well. [ 5 ]
The most common initial conditions that alert to the presence of AIDS are pneumocystis pneumonia (40%), cachexia in the form of HIV wasting syndrome (20%), and esophageal candidiasis. [32] Other common signs include recurrent respiratory tract infections .
Duesberg notes that diseases associated with AIDS differ between African and Western populations, concluding that the causes of immunodeficiency must be different. Tuberculosis is much more commonly diagnosed among AIDS patients in Africa than in Western countries, while PCP conforms to the opposite pattern. [32]
The Centers for Disease Control was the first organization to recognize the pandemic which came to be called AIDS. [77] Their announcement came on June 5, 1981, when one of their journals published an article reporting five cases of pneumonia, caused by Pneumocystis jirovecii, all in gay men living in Los Angeles. [78] [79]
The declaration of AIDS. HIV wasting syndrome * Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia; Toxoplasmosis of the brain; Cryptosporidiosis with diarrhoea > 1 month; Cryptococcosis, extrapulmonary; Cytomegalovirus disease of an organ other than liver, spleen or lymph node (ex: retinitis) Herpes simplex virus infection, mucocutaneous (>1 month) or visceral