HIV patients in intensive care units

Abstract

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a global public health problem, with about 36.7 million infected people in 160 different countries by the end of 2015⁽¹⁾. In Brazil, 842,710 cases — according to the Ministry of Health — from 1980 to June 2016⁽²⁾. Since its adoption in 1996, the concept of the Combined Antiretroviral Therapy (cART), also known as Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART), changed the natural history of the infection: it improved prognosis and decreased mortality, leading therefore to the chronicity of the disease⁽³⁾. [...]