Case report
Pulmonary cystic disease in HIV positive individuals in the Democratic Republic of Congo: three case reports
1 School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
2 Pediatric Hospital Kalembe Lembe, Lingwala, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
3 School of Public Health, University of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
4 University of Antwerp, Belgium and Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium
Journal of Medical Case Reports 2007, 1:101 doi:10.1186/1752-1947-1-101
Published: 22 September 2007Abstract
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.
