Review article
Invasive meningococcal disease among persons with HIV – an increased risk or plausible assumption
Šime Zekan
; Referentni centar za dijagnostiku i liječenje zaraze HIV-om, Klinika za infektivne bolesti "Dr. Fran Mihaljević", Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
Infection with HIV is associated with an increased risk for several bacterial infections but data on the relationship between HIV and Neisseria meningtidis are limited. Recent studies have reported an increased risk for invasive meningococcal disease among HIV-infected persons, up to 13 times greater than among the general population. There have been reports on outbreaks of invasive meningococcal disease among men who have sex with men (MSM) in few larger cities like Berlin, New York City, Los Angeles. Care for HIV-infected patients in Croatia is centralized. There have been no cases of invasive meningococcal disease recorded among patients in our cohort. But since the rate of MSM among our HIV-infected patients is high, we expect that both confirmed risk factors from the literature (HIV-infection and belonging to MSM community) combined could result with invasive meningococcal disease in Croatia as well. Fast responses from the epidemiology service will be needed to prevent further spread of new infections.
Keywords
Invasive meningococcal disease; HIV-infection; MSM (men having sex with men)
Hrčak ID:
133464
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2014.
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