Short Communication
Yanagisawa K and Nojima Y
Abstract
Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) is one of an important opportunistic infections in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection or taking immunosuppressive agents. The diagnosis, therapy and prophylaxis have been well-established. The counts of CD4 positive T cells (CD4) is a risk factor of PCP in HIV-infected patients, and the prevalence of PCP in the patients having CD4<200/µl is almost a half of them in Japan. However, among HIV-infected patients, risk factor other than CD4 have not been established, although in patients with rheumatic diseases some factors have been reported. Recently, our team reported the association between the genotypes in gene coding mannose-binding lectin (MBL) and the prevalence of PCP in HIV-infected patients. It may confer the strategy of PCP prophylaxis in the immunocompromised patients.