Dawaa Reference

Clinical reference

Symptomatic HIV infection / AIDS

Treatment options, dosing, cautions and Egyptian brands from the shipped Dawaa Reference card.

Evidence status

Checked against the sources named below

Sources3 sources

HIV and AIDS - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf (NBK534860) - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK534860/ · ICPC-3 (WONCA International Classification of Primary Care, 3rd edition) class BD04 - condition scope only, no dose · No dose - referral pathway, no medicine given in primary care

Verified against1 document
  • No dose - referral pathway, no medicine given in primary care

Verified date2026-08

Presentation reference

Is it this?

Reference only, to read alongside your own examination.

Symptoms — what the patient reports (5)

  • This card is built from an HIV-2 article and several lines are true of HIV-2 only. Presentation can include an acute retroviral illness or an opportunistic infection at diagnosis
  • Reported opportunistic infections include oral thrush, PCP pneumonia, CMV, Kaposi sarcoma, tuberculosis, disseminated mycobacterial disease, toxoplasmosis, and progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy
  • In one African cohort, generalized wasting and pulmonary tuberculosis were the leading AIDS-defining features at diagnosis [muscle wasting]
  • Kidney disease linked to HIV is described only rarely in HIV-2, unlike its more frequent occurrence in HIV-1
  • Brain inflammation (encephalitis) may be seen more often in HIV-2 than in HIV-1, for uncertain reasons

Tests (6)

  • Diagnosis relies on fourth-generation antigen-antibody testing that includes a step separating HIV-1 from HIV-2
  • Older antibody assays and confirmatory western blots often could not reliably tell HIV-1 from HIV-2 because of cross-reactivity
  • As many as 40% of untreated patients with HIV-2 have no detectable virus on blood testing
  • Red flag: an undetectable viral load does not rule out HIV-2, since the test is unreliable for that purpose. This does not apply to HIV-1
  • Genetic and phenotypic drug-resistance testing for HIV-2 is not validated or available for clinical use in the US. It IS available for HIV-1
  • Only two US laboratories routinely perform HIV-2 viral load testing, limiting its availability

If not this — what else fits (9)

  • Dual infection with both HIV-1 and HIV-2 is on the differential
  • Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia is on the differential
  • Toxoplasma gondii encephalitis is on the differential
  • Tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) is on the differential
  • Nontuberculous mycobacterial infection is on the differential
  • Mucocutaneous candidiasis is on the differential
  • Herpes simplex virus infection is on the differential
  • Kaposi sarcoma from human herpesvirus-8 is on the differential
  • Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy is on the differential

SourceStatPearls "HIV-2 Infection" - disease-level clinical article

Presentation findings are traced to the source above.

1

NO DRUG THERAPY IN PRIMARY CARE (REFERRAL & ADVICE)

1st line
Adult dose and duration

Advanced HIV disease needs urgent referral to a specialist HIV centre for ART and opportunistic-infection management; a GP's main contribution is recognising it, starting co-trimoxazole prophylaxis if there will be a delay reaching the centre, and referring urgently. - Refer, with advice

Paediatric dose

Children follow the same pathway: recognise and refer. No primary-care medicine is implied.

Dose source

No dose - referral pathway, no medicine given in primary care

Why

Advanced HIV disease needs urgent referral to a specialist HIV centre for ART and opportunistic-infection management; a GP's main contribution is recognising it, starting co-trimoxazole prophylaxis if there will be a delay reaching the centre, and referring urgently.

Cautions
  • No medicine is prescribed for this in primary care - this entry is for recognition and referral. Anything given is decided by the service it is referred to.
  • RED FLAG - Advanced immunosuppression with CD4 count < 200 cells/µL places patients at high risk for opportunistic infections.
  • RED FLAG - Primary prophylaxis is indicated for CD4 count < 200 cells/µL to prevent Pneumocystis jirovecii and Toxoplasma gondii opportunistic infections.
  • RED FLAG - Opportunistic infection symptoms (persistent fever, chronic diarrhoea, oral thrush, weight loss, cough), neurological symptoms, severe wasting, or pregnancy.

Prices are indicative (dataset snapshot 2026-06); verify with the pharmacy.