Management of opportunistic infections in pediatric HIV.

ABSTRACT

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes a chronic infection that leads to profound immunosuppression. A hallmark of this process is the depletion of CD4+ lymphocytes, which predisposes the patient to develop a variety of opportunistic infections and certain neoplasms. The CD4+ lymphocyte count is the best validated predictor of the likelihood of developing opportunistic infections (OI). Susceptibility to OI increases as HIV induced immunosuppression becomes more severe. The management of HIV infection hence involves not only inhibiting viral replication using antiretroviral drugs, but also treating OI. This article focuses on the management of such commonly occurring OI in HIV infected patients.