Prevalence of Leishmania infantum infection in patients with HIV/AIDS from transmission areas of Visceral Leishmaniasis

Abstract

Few studies have evaluated Leishmania infection in HIV-infected patients and there are few information about the accuracy of available diagnostic methods to coinfected patients in Latin America. Justification: there are few studies evaluating the accuracy of diagnostic methods in Leishmania/HIV-coinfected patients in Latin America. Furthermore, the serological tests usually used have low sensitivity and the parasitological tests have variable sensitivity. These facts reinforce the need of studies about diagnosis in this context, including asymptomatic people. Objectives: evaluate the prevalence of Leishmania infantum infection in people with HIV/AIDS; evaluate the positivity of serological, parasitological and molecular diagnosis methods; evaluate the sensitivity of clinical exam and the influence of CD4+T lymphocytes count, viral load and antiretroviral therapy on sensitivity of laboratorial methods to HIV diagnosis. Methods: this is a transversal study, which patients with HIV/AIDS from Emílio Ribas Infectious Disease Institute will be evaluate regarding clinical/epidemiological aspects and serological, parasitological and molecular diagnosis methods. Expected results: better accuracy of molecular diagnosis methods, comparing to serological diagnosis methods; similar positivity between molecular diagnosis methods and parasitological diagnosis methods; better accuracy of and greater presence of asymptomatic infection between patients using regular antiretroviral therapy, comparing to non-treated or irregular treated patients. (AU)