Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2022 Dec 2:15:7037-7042.
doi: 10.2147/IDR.S390333. eCollection 2022.

HIV-Associated Mycobacterium Avium Complex, Oral Candida, and SARS-CoV-2 Co-Infection: A Rare Case Report

Xue Ding  1 , Xiuxia Ma  2 , Yanyan Xu  3 , Liran Xu  4
Affiliations
Case Reports

HIV-Associated Mycobacterium Avium Complex, Oral Candida, and SARS-CoV-2 Co-Infection: A Rare Case Report

Xue Ding et al. Infect Drug Resist. .

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has spread rapidly to become a global pandemic. Opportunistic infections (OIs) are common in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) and oral candidiasis (OC) are frequently responsible for such infections. Here, we describe a patient with a recent history of COVID-19 who was also diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), MAC, and OC.

Case presentation: The patient was a 23-year-old woman with a past medical history of HIV infection who was diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection 6 days prior to her referral to hospital. Her chief complaints were chest distress and continuous fever with a background of a 5-month history of anemia and tuberculosis (TB). Chest X-ray showed bilateral parenchymal infiltrates suspicious for COVID-19. She was treated with oxygen, empiric antibacterial and antiretroviral therapy. Further workup showed MAC and OC infection. She was started on ethambutol, rifampin and antifungal treatment for influenzas and her symptoms resolved in 8 weeks. Follow-up chest computed tomography scanning showed that the lung lesions disappeared within a short period of time.

Conclusion: A thorough history and clinical examination are vital to arriving at the correct diagnosis or diagnoses. With the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians caring for immunosuppressed patients need to remain vigilant of the simultaneous presence of OIs. This report highlights the importance of the treatment and prevention of OIs in HIV-infected persons, which may reduce adverse consequences after infection with SARS-CoV-2.

Keywords: HIV; case report; coronavirus disease 2019; mycobacterium avium complex; oral candidiasis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no competing interests in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
CT scanning revealed substantial pulmonary lesions.
Figure 2
Figure 2
CT scan showed a thin ground-glass density shadow in both lungs, but it was slightly smaller than in previous scans.
Figure 3
Figure 3
CT scanning showed significant improvement of the pulmonary lesions.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Fauci AS, Lane HC, Redfield RR. Covid-19 - navigating the uncharted. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(13):1268–1269. doi:10.1056/NEJMe2002387 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ballester-Arnal R, Gil-Llario MD. [The Virus that Changed Spain: impact of COVID-19 on People with HIV]. El Virus que cambió España: impacto del COVID-19 en las personas con VIH. AIDS Behav. 2020;24(8):2253–2257. Spanish. doi:10.1007/s10461-020-02877-3 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Belaunzaran-Zamudio PF, Caro-Vega Y, Giganti MJ, et al. Frequency of non-communicable diseases in people 50 years of age and older receiving HIV care in Latin America. PLoS One. 2020;15(6):e0233965. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0233965 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Deeks SG. Immune dysfunction, inflammation, and accelerated aging in patients on antiretroviral therapy. Top HIV Med. 2009;17(4):118–123. - PubMed
    1. Johnston R. The first 6 months of HIV-SARS-CoV-2 coinfection: outcomes for 6947 individuals. Curr Opin HIV AIDS. 2021;16(1):54–62. doi:10.1097/coh.0000000000000654 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types