I’m working on a term paper about HIV-related opportunistic infections, and I can’t help but notice that very few of them are bacterial in nature. While TB and MAI are obviously extremely important OIs in AIDS patients, they seem to be the only bacterial diseases linked with AIDS, while the list of viral, fungal and parasitic infections goes on forever.
Why is this?
Pneumococcal pneumonia, also. Pneumonia is probably the most common opportunistic infection suffered by people with AIDS, and it can be caused by a variety of bacteria. Trench fever, catscratch disease, bacillary angiomatosis, bacterial retinitus, and salmonelosis are also found in AIDS patients, as well as a lot of other bacterial infections.
Are any of the drugs given to AIDS patients for maintenance purposes also functional as antibiotics?
It might also be that innate immunity and barrier immunity (I.E. all the low tech chemical warfare agents present on the skin, in saliva, etc.) aren’t really affected by HIV, but are more effective on bacteria than viral/fungal vectors.
I was thinking that too, but can’t find a cite.
Could it also have to do with the fact that the bacterial diseases are slightly easier to treat than the fungal and viral ones, so they don’t end up causing as many deaths in the end?