Toxoplasmosis Is Most Common HIV-Related Neurological Ailment

Although antiretroviral therapy significantly reduces the risk of developing toxoplasmosis encephalitis or to experience rapid toxoplasmosis disease progression and death, the ailment remains the most common neurological condition among HIV-positive adults, Italian researchers report in the December 1 edition of the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. Data from the Italian Investigative NeuroAIDS Study show that toxoplasmosis encephalitis was the most common neurological condition among 805 HIV-positive adults who had been diagnosed with a central nervous system abnormality between 2000 and 2002; 205 study subjects, 26% of the total, developed the disease. Male patients, previous exposure to antiretroviral therapy, the use of toxoplasmosis prophylactic drugs, and a higher CD4-cell count decreased toxoplasmosis risk, the researchers report. 'Because toxoplasmosis encephalitis was associated with a high probability of early death, all strategies to avoid toxoplasmosis encephalitis occurrence, such as not delaying [antiretroviral therapy] until there is a high risk of clinical progression and maintaining prophylaxis in immunosuppressed patients for who [antiretroviral therapy] has failed, should be considered,' the researchers conclude.