Performance Testing of PCR Assay in Blood Samples for the Diagnosis of Toxoplasmic Encephalitis in AIDS Patients from the French Departments of America and Genetic Diversity of Toxoplasma gondii: A Prospective and Multicentric Study.

Background: Toxoplasmic encephalitis in patients with AIDS is a life-threatening disease mostly due to reactivation of Toxoplasma gondii cysts in the brain. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of real-time PCR assay in peripheral blood samples for the diagnosis of toxoplasmic encephalitis in AIDS patients in the French West Indies and Guiana.

Methodology/principal Findings: Adult patients with HIV and suspicion of toxoplasmic encephalitis with start of specific antitoxoplasmic therapy were included in this study during 40 months.

Fever in hospitalized HIV-infected patients in Western French Guiana: first think histoplasmosis.

In Western French Guiana, there was a dramatic increase in HIV prevalence between 1990 and 2000. The present study describes the causes of fever among HIV patients hospitalized in the medical ward of the only hospital in the western part of French Guiana. A retrospective descriptive study was conducted between 1 January 2008 and 30 June 2010 in the department of medicine of Saint Laurent du Maroni Hospital.