title: Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection and incidence of toxoplasma encephalitis in non-haemophiliac HIV-1-infected adults in Taiwan.
abstract: We assessed the seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection and incidence of toxoplasma encephalitis (TE) in 844 non-haemophiliac HIV-infected patients in Taiwan between June 1994 and April 2003. Approximately 70% (69.3%) of them had a baseline CD4+ lymphocyte count of 200 x 10(6)/L or less, and more than 70% (73.9%) having initiated highly active antiretroviral therapy. The seroprevalence of T. gondii infection was 10.2%, which did not differ with sex,age,route of transmission, birth inside or outside of Taiwan, or CD4+ lymphocyte stratifications. After a median observation duration of 603 days (range, 1-3264 days), 10 (1.2%) patients developed 11 episodes of TE after a median interval of 30 days (range, 1-941 days) between enrolment and diagnosis of TE, with an incidence of 0.59 per 100 person-years (PY) (95% confidence interval, 0.56-0.63 per 100 PY). We concluded that the incidence of TE of HIV-infected patients in Taiwan was lower than that reported in western countries because of a lower seroprevalence of T. gondii infection and use of antimicrobial prophylaxis and antiretroviral therapy, although most of the patients were at the late stage of HIV infection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, 7 Chung-Shan Road, Taipei, Taiwan. hcc0401@ha.mc.ntu.edu.tw
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Hung
authors.forename: M Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.forename: C F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Hsiao
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Sheng
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Chang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D023241:Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D014123:Toxoplasmosis / Q000453:epidemiology*