It is Not Always COVID-19: Case Report about an Undiagnosed HIV Man with Dyspnea
Michela Pontolillo1, Katia Falasca1, Jacopo Vecchiet1
1Clinic of Infectious Diseases, G. d'Annunzio" University Chieti-Pescara, Italy.
Background:
The current COVID-19 pandemic has attracted great attention from the medical world. In the past year, there have been reports of missed or delayed treatments for conditions that mimic COVID-19. The main symptoms caused by SARS-CoV-2, such as fever and cough, belong to different clinical conditions. It is of the utmost importance that the diagnostic thinking used to analyze data and information to reach a COVID-19 diagnosis does not overlook the plethora of different diagnoses related to these symptoms.
Case Report:
The aim of this work is to present the clinical case of a patient having unrecognized HIV infection with a 4-week history of fever, cough, and hypoxia. When tests were allowed to highlight HIV-related immunodeficiency status, a CMV assay was performed in order to evaluate opportunistic pneumonia. Through this, diagnosis of HIV combined with CMV pneumonia was made, thus excluding COVID-19 respiratory insufficiency.
Conclusion:
The diagnosis of the two conditions in the COVID-19 era is challenging due to overlapping clinical and radiological features and limitations of current diagnostic assays. This causes clinical implications due to diagnostic delays.
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