Lung infections in the HIV-infected adult

This review describes current epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of adult HIV-related lung infections using evidence published within the past 2 years.

Recent evidence has helped better determine the importance of early initiation of antiretroviral therapy in co-infected individuals with advanced immune suppression. Although this has led to a greatly reduced incidence of opportunistic infections in people with HIV, Pneumocystis pneumonia remains common. Pneumonia due to bacterial pathogens, such as Streptococcus pneumoniae, also causes considerable disease burden, but emerging evidence of the clinical efficacy of pneumococcal vaccination, especially conjugated vaccines, offers considerable promise. As HIV-infected populations become older, more emphasis should be given to the potential benefit of influenza prevention, particularly with vaccination, and encouraging smoking cessation. Co-infection with tuberculosis is still a huge problem worldwide, but the recent development and use of simple clinical algorithms based on symptoms and point-of-care testing for recognizing active disease offers great potential.

The lung remains an important site of disease in HIV-infected individuals. Increasing emphasis should be placed upon prevention of infection and modification of risk factors.