Sibylle Bevilacqua

Malignancy-related causes of death in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy: Malignancy-Related Death in Patients with HIV

Before the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), malignancies accounted for less than 10% of all deaths among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)‐infected patients. This figure may have increased, and the observed types of malignant disease may have been modified, as a result of decreased occurrence of opportunistic infections, the chronicity of HIV infection, the possible oncogenic role of HIV itself, and the aging of the HIV‐infected population.

Opportunistic infections as causes of death in HIV-infected patients in the HAART era in France

The objective of the study was to describe the underlying causes of death of HIV-infected patients in the HAART era and to focus on those related to opportunistic infection (OI), in a national multicentre study (‘Mortalité 2000’). A total of 964 deaths were recorded and 924 cases were available for analysis. Underlying cause of death were AIDS-related (47%), viral hepatitis (11%), non-AIDS cancers (11%), cardiovascular diseases (7%) and others (11%). Among patients who died of AIDS events, 262 (27%) died of at least one OI. OIs reported at the time of death were Cytomegalovirus infection 67 times, Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia 56, disseminated Mycobacterium avium intracellulare infection 53 and cerebral toxoplasmosis 48. Compared to patients who died of other causes, patients who died of OIs were younger and more likely to be infected through heterosexual contact, in poor socioeconomic conditions, migrants, more recently diagnosed for HIV infection, and naive of antiretroviral therapy and OI prophylaxis. OIs are still a major cause of death in HIV-infected patient in the HAART era, especially among patients recently diagnosed for HIV infection and who do not have access to care, as well as in long term infected patients where prophylaxis should be revisited.

Tolerability of postexposure prophylaxis with zidovudine, lamivudine, and nelfinavir for human immunodeficiency virus infection.

Tolerability of the combination of zidovudine, lamivudine, and nelfinavir used as postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) for HIV infection was prospectively evaluated among 185 patients at 11 hospitals in eastern France. After exclusion of the 106 persons who discontinued PEP either because the source patient subsequently tested HIV seronegative or because the injury was reassessed as resulting in a low risk for transmission of HIV, 67 (85%) of the patients who received such PEP experienced adverse effects, which led to withdrawal of nelfinavir in 28 (35%) of these patients.

Varicella arthritis in childhood: a case report and review of the literature.

Nonbacterial arthritis is a rare but well-recognized complication of acute varicella in children. Reported cases usually described monoarthritis of the knee that occurs at the onset of the rash or shortly after. Herein, we describe a case of arthritis of the hip that occurred in a 4-year-old girl 6 days before the onset of rash. The presence of varicella-zoster virus DNA in synovial fluid was confirmed by real-time polymerase chain reaction. A review of the literature reported 26 previous cases of aseptic arthritis due to varicella infection among children.