Pulmonary cystic disease in HIV positive individuals in the Democratic Republic of Congo: three case reports

Steven FJ Callens¹ , Faustin Kitetele² , Patricia Lelo³ , Nicole Shabani³ , Jean Lusiama³ , Okitolanda Wemakoy³ , Robert Colebunders⁴ , Frieda Behets¹ and Annelies Van Rie¹

¹School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

²Pediatric Hospital Kalembe Lembe, Lingwala, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

³School of Public Health, University of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

⁴University of Antwerp, Belgium and Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium

author email corresponding author email

Journal of Medical Case Reports 2007, 1:101doi:10.1186/1752-1947-1-101


Published:	22 September 2007

Abstract

Pulmonary emphysema and bronchiectasis in HIV seropositive patients has been described in the presence of injection drug use, malnutrition, repeated opportunistic infections, such as Pneumocytis jirovici pneumonia and Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, and has been linked to the presence of HIV virus in lung tissue. Given the high burden of pulmonary infections and malnutrition among people living with HIV in resource poor settings, these individuals may be at increased risk of developing pulmonary emphysema, potentially reducing the long term benefit of antiretroviral therapy (ART) if initiated late in the course of HIV infection.

In this report, we describe three HIV-infected individuals (one woman and two children) presenting with extensive pulmonary cystic disease.