Undiagnosed AIDS in Patients with Progressive Dyspnoea: An Occupational Risk for Healthcare Workers in Croatia

Pulmonary diseases are well documented and diverse in many patients with HIV in clinical stages 3 and 4. It is not unusual that these patients, most of whom do not know that they are already HIV-infected, are first examined and hospitalised by respiratory medicine specialists. While HIV-infection is relatively simple to diagnose if accompanied by advanced clinical manifestations and is regularly checked in patients with increased risk, this is not the case in low-risk patients, particularly in countries with low-level HIV epidemic and therefore low index of suspicion. Regular examination involves a series of tests, often including bronchoscopy with transbronchal lung biopsy in order to identify an interstitial lung disease and/or progressive dyspnoea. It is not uncommon that patients provide false or incomplete information about their lifestyle, which can mislead the clinician. At this point, HIV-infection is usually not suspected and healthcare workers may not strictly be following the safety principles which are otherwise applied when HIV-infection is known or suspect, although universal precautions are routine practice. At this point, the risk of exposure is the highest and HIV-transmission to healthcare workers is the most likely to occur. The cases presented here indicate that patients with progressive dyspnoea, which is typical of interstitial lung diseases, should undergo HIV-testing as a part of good clinical practice, even in a country with low-level HIV epidemic. Različiti oblici plućnih bolesti detaljno su opisani u mnogih pacijenata inficiranih HIV-om te značajno pridonose kliničkoj slici AIDS-a. Stoga takve pacijente, koji obično i ne znaju da su HIV-pozitivni, najčešće obrađuju i hospitaliziraju specijalisti za plućne bolesti. Posumnjati na AIDS i tu pretpostavku potvrditi nije problem kod pacijenata s razvijenim kliničkim manifestacijama AIDS-a, a ni u pacijenata s poznatim rizičnim čimbenicima. Teškoće u postavljanju prave dijagnoze nastaju obično u pacijenata u kojih rizični čimbenici nisu poznati ili ih pacijenti namjerno skrivaju, posebno u zemlji niske incidencije HIV-infekcije u kojoj se na AIDS ne pomišlja dovoljno u diferencijalnoj dijagnozi. Tijekom dijagnostičkog procesa pacijent prolazi niz testova i pretraga, koji često uključuje bronhoskopiju i transbronhalnu biopsiju pluća s ciljem identificiranja patologije plućnog intersticija i/ili progresivne dispneje. S obzirom na to da pacijenti često taje podatke o svojim navikama i živo