Treatment of parasitic diarrhea in HIV-infected patients

Abstract

Parasitic infections responsible for diarrhea have a worldwide distribution, overlapping with AIDS in most countries. Indeed, highly active antiretroviral therapy has markedly reduced the incidence of most parasitic opportunistic infections, but parasite-related diarrhea remains frequent and probably underestimated in developing countries. In this review, we focus on the advances in molecular epidemiology, diagnosis and current treatment of the most prevalent parasitic infections in HIV-infected patients. Most of these parasites are protozoa, whose diagnosis at the laboratory requires some adapted technique and expertise. We highlight the importance of diagnosis and the skill of the laboratory of parasitology, since most parasitic infections responsible for diarrhea in AIDS patients can be treated.

Keywords::

• AIDS
• Blastocystis
• Cryptosporidium
• Cyclospora
• diarrhea
• Giardia
• highly active antiretroviral therapy
• Isospora
• microsporidia
• protozoa

Acknowledgements

F Derouin and M Lagrange-Xelot thank Annie Sulahian and Juliette Pavie for critical review of the manuscript and Marie-France Le Gall for helpful secretarial assistance.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.