ABSTRACT
A-30-years old married man with HIV/AIDS wasting syndrome is being reported. The patient had history of injecting heroin with rampant sharing with his drug partners, weight loss, night sweats, productive cough, severe muscle wasting, chronic diarrhoea >30 days and fever > 30 days. This syndrome indicates the long-standing complication of HIV infection. Blood, sputum, CSF, faeces and urine routine and culture examination findings to rule out opportunistic infections were repeatedly negative. No malignant cells were found. HIV testing was positive. The CD 4 positive T-lymphocyte count was measured before and after six months of treatment. In the present case report, evaluation of the symptoms yielded no specific pathogen and had no evidence of opportunistic infections. He is being placed under observation with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) along with nutritional support. He is improving clinically and immunologically by raising in the patient's CD4 count. Early antiretroviral therapy along with meticulous nutritional support is ideal to improve the quality of life of AIDS patients.
Subject(s)
Adult , HIV Wasting Syndrome/diagnosis , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
In patients with HIV infection/AIDS, in addition to the antiretrovival therapy nutritional support is needed to maintain optimum nutrition during the symptomatic period, to prevent further deterioration of nutritional status during acute episodes of infections and to improve nutritional status during the stable symptom free period. This can be achieved by (a) nutritional assessment, (b) nutritional screening, (c) nutritional intervention and by providing (d) psychosocial support for nutrition.