Anaesthesia | Patient specific populations | Management of the Patient With HIV

Management of the Patient With HIV
Session Overview
Description
This session describes the diagnosis and management of patients with new or known HIV in critical care.

Learning Objectives
By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Explain the diagnosis of HIV and AIDS
• Explain when we should be performing HIV tests on ICU
• Describe the management of patients with HIV on ICU
• Describe anti-retroviral treatments used for HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes a disease which attacks CD4 T cells and weakens the immune system, allowing opportunistic infection and malignancy to occur.

The pathogen is a retrovirus whose RNA is incorporated into host DNA and destroys T helper cells (Fig 1).

In 2016, there were 36.7 million people living with HIV worldwide (Fig 2). Nearly two-thirds of these cases were in sub-Saharan Africa. In the same year there were 1 million deaths from HIV-related illnesses worldwide.

In the UK, in 2013, it was estimated that there were 107 000 people living with HIV, of whom nearly a quarter were undiagnosed.