Strategies for managing
opportunistic infections
May 2008 View PDF En
español
Opportunistic infections and HIV disease
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has developed a list of
serious and life-threatening diseases, listed
in the chart. When these diseases occur in HIV-positive people,
they’re called AIDS-defining OIs. (AIDS is short for acquired
immune deficiency syndrome.) So when a person has an AIDS-defining
OI, it results in the diagnosis
of AIDS for that person. Another way an AIDS diagnosis occurs
is when tests that measure your immune system show that you’re
at serious risk for developing these conditions. Examples of this
include CD4 counts below 200 or CD4 percentages below 14%
OIs can be fairly common infections, like genital herpes. But
not everyone with HIV who has a herpes outbreak is deemed to have
AIDS. To the contrary, herpes becomes an OI only when it takes
advantage of a weakened immune system to become more aggressive,
persistent and harder to treat. So, having HIV and genital
herpes isn’t automatically considered AIDS; but, having HIV
and a herpes outbreak that persists for a month despite treatment
is.
It’s important to note that nearly any condition or disease
can become opportunistic due to a weakened immune system. This
is true for people living with cancers or other health problems.
But for an OI to be the cause for an AIDS diagnosis, it must be
one of the CDC’s AIDS-defining diseases in people living
with HIV.
However, it’s possible for people with HIV to get
conditions that are not on the CDC’s list. Occasionally the
CDC revises its list to include these new conditions. For example,
hepatitis C (HCV) disease is not currently an AIDS-defining OI.
But more data are showing that people with HIV are at higher risk
for more aggressive HCV liver disease. Your first line of defense
to many of these conditions is prevention.
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