This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Google Scholar Articles by Alvar, J. Articles by Moreno, J. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Alvar, J. Articles by Moreno, J.

The Relationship between Leishmaniasis and AIDS: the Second 10 Years

Neglected Tropical Diseases, World Health Organization, Av. Appia 1211, Geneva 27, Switzerland,¹ Armauer Hansen Research Institute, P.O. Box 1005, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,² Médecins Sans Frontières, Amsterdam, The Netherlands,³ WHO Collaborating Center for Leishmaniasis, Centro Nacional de Microbiología, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28220 Majadahonda, Madrid, Spain,⁴ WHO Collaborating Center for Leishmaniasis, Université Montpellier 1-34090, Montpellier, France,⁵ Unit of Vector-Borne Diseases & International Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 00161 Rome, Italy,⁶ Tropical Medicine & Clinical Parasitology, Infectious Diseases, Hospital Ramón y Cajal, 28034 Madrid, Spain,⁷ Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, CSIC, 28040 Madrid, Spain⁸

Summary: To date, most Leishmania and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coinfection cases reported to WHO come from Southern Europe. Up to the year 2001, nearly 2,000 cases of coinfection were identified, of which 90% were from Spain, Italy, France, and Portugal. However, these figures are misleading because they do not account for the large proportion of cases in many African and Asian countries that are missed due to a lack of diagnostic facilities and poor reporting systems. Most cases of coinfection in the Americas are reported in Brazil, where the incidence of leishmaniasis has spread in recent years due to overlap with major areas of HIV transmission. In some areas of Africa, the number of coinfection cases has increased dramatically due to social phenomena such as mass migration and wars. In northwest Ethiopia, up to 30% of all visceral leishmaniasis patients are also infected with HIV. In Asia, coinfections are increasingly being reported in India, which also has the highest global burden of leishmaniasis and a high rate of resistance to antimonial drugs. Based on the previous experience of 20 years of coinfection in Europe, this review focuses on the management of Leishmania-HIV-coinfected patients in low-income countries where leishmaniasis is endemic.