The evolving challenge of Pneumocystis carinii

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Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is challenging greater numbers of clinicians every day. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) wages a war of attrition with the immune system, and HIV-infected persons succumb to opportunistic tumors or infections, the most serious of which is Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. The key features of P carinii pneumonia, summarized here by Drs Henry and Thurn, should be known to clinicians throughout the United States.