Visceral leishmaniasis and HIV/AIDS in Brazil: Are we aware enough?

Background: the urbanization of visceral leishmaniasis (vl) and the concurrent movement of the hiv infection to rural areas in brazil are possible mechanisms associated with an increased number of leishmania/hiv coinfected people. this study aimed to describe the clinical and epidemiological profile of vl/hiv coinfected patients and compare this profile to non-coinfected vl patients. methods: cases of vl/hiv coinfection were obtained through a probabilistic record linkage of databases of vl and aids cases from the brazilian ministry of health. results: we retrieved 760 cases of vl/hiv coinfection,most prevalent in adult males,with incidence ranging from 0.01 to 0.07 cases,per 100.000 population,in 2001 and 2010,respectively. case-fatality rates were 27.3% in 2001 and 23.2% in 2010. weakness,weight loss,cough,other associated infections and haemorrhagic phenomena were more commonly found among coinfected patients,which had a fatality rate three times higher as compared to the non-coinfected group. the relapse proportion was two times greater among coinfected (6.3%) than non-coinfected (3.1%). conclusions: the results found herein contribute to the increase of knowledge of the epidemiological situation of vl/hiv coinfection in brazil and reinforce the necessity of implementing specific strategies to improve early case detection and efficacious and less toxic treatment in order to achieve lower case-fatality rates. © 2017 leite de sousa-gomes et al.