The prevalence of invasive amebiasis is not increased in patients with AIDS
Jessurun, J.; Barrón-Rodríguez, L.P.; Fernández-Tinoco, G.; Hernández-Avila, M.
Aids 6(3): 307-309
1992
ISSN/ISBN: 0269-9370 PMID: 1567575 DOI: 10.1097/00002030-199203000-00008Document Number: 318741
The incidence of diseases among AIDS patients and controls was investigated through autopsies at the General Hospital of Mexico City. Of particular interest was the association between amebiasis and AIDS, and other parasitic diseases. AIDS cases and controls were selected from a registry of 600 autopsies/year which represents about 50% of all hospital-occurring deaths. 94 AIDS cases were obtained between August 1986-December 1989, which represents 85% of AIDS mortality cases. Case controls were matched by month of death, age, and gender in 2 periods, between 1972-79 before the 1st case of AIDS was diagnosed and between 1982-89. Analysis was conducted for each control group, but because results were almost identical, data were pooled and presented as 1 analysis. Conditional logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds ratios at a 95% confidence interval level. Of the AIDS autopsies, 55.4% were homosexual/bisexual men, 13.8% were infected through blood transfusions, 5.3% through heterosexual contact, and 24.9% in a no-risk category. Results indicate that there is no difference in the relative frequency or severity of amebiasis among AIDS compared with control cases. This finding is unrelated to the administration of antiamebic drugs to AIDS patients, since none were administered during the hospital stay. This finding is also supported by other studies including invasion by E. histolytica among HIV-infected patients in populations with a high incidence of chronic diarrhea. Another common parasitic disease, cysticercosis, was found also to be less frequent among AIDS patients compared with controls. Other infections found to greater than controls among AIDS patients were military tuberculosis, cytomegalovirus infection, pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, and cerebral toxoplasmosis.