Challenges in Treating Intraocular Inflammation in HIV Patients

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To describe the challenges faced by uveitis specialists when managing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) -infected patients diagnosed with ocular opportunistic infections.

Methods: Narrative Review

Results: Management of opportunistic ocular infections in HIV-infected subjects still represents a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Atypical and aggressive clinical features can often mislead the correct diagnosis, leading to a delay in therapy and thus, a poor clinical outcome. The reliability of standard serological tests may be affected by the immune system response, further contributing to the diagnostic challenge. Life-long monitoring and long-term antimicrobial maintenance are necessary to avoid recurrences and disease dissemination.

Conclusions: A multidisciplinary approach is needed to achieve the best standard of care for HIV patients with ocular opportunistic infections.

KEYWORDS:

• Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
• acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)
• combined antiretroviral therapy (CART)
• ocular opportunistic infections
• uveitis
• atypical presentations
• anergy
• immunorecovery syndrome
• maintenance therapy

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.