Prevalência da co-infecção Leishmania/HIV em pacientes atendidos em unidades de referência do município de Belém

Abstract

In order to investigate the prevalence of Leishmania infection in HIV seropositive patients without co-infection history, a cross-sectional study by analyzing clinical and epidemiological data from patients enrolled in AIDS Reference Units in Belém: CASA DIA and URE-DIPE were carried out between July and October 2008. Blood samples were collected from 377 patients that agreed to participate in the study for IFI and PCR assay and 55 of them were submitted to skin test, IDRM . The mean age was 38.2 years and 59% were female. The viral-load medians among 249 patients who had complete information about this variable were 30952.2. IFI was positive in 08 patients and PCR was positive in 22. A total of 314 patients were treated with HAART. We recorded 218 patients with episodes of diseases associated to HIV condition. Five patients related M. leprae / HIV co-infection, and none of them showed positive results by PCR for Leishmania. The intravenous drug use was related by 27 patients but the PCR was positive for Leishmania in only one patient, indicating that the transmission type was not inter-human. Among the patients who were submitted to IDRM, none of them showed positive reaction. In the present study, the PCR technique was more sensitive than IFI reaction, 6% and 2% respectively.