Toxoplasmosis is a DEVASTATING DISEASE IN IMMUNOSUPPRESSED HOSTS, AND IS ONE OF THE MAJOR CAUSES OF MORTALITY IN AIDS PATIENTS.

• The disease is manifest most commonly as encephalitis, leading to headaches, focal seizures or changes in mental status. Disease can result from a newly acquired acute infection, but is more often due to reactivation of a latent infection when a pateinet's CD4 T-cell count drops to <100 cells/ul.
• Toxoplasmosis in immunosuppressed patients can also manifest as myocarditis. This can occur when the organism is introduced into a seronegative patient along with a transplanted heart.

UP TO 50% OF AIDS PATIENTS WHO ARE SEROPOSITIVE FOR PRIOR T. GONDII INFECTION DEVELOP TOXOPLASMA ENCEPHALITIS DURING THE COURSE OF THEIR DISEASE, although death rates due to toxoplasmosis in HIV patients appear to be decreasing in recent years (based on advances in diagnosis, anti-Toxoplasma therapy, and highly-active anti-retroviral therapy [HAART]).

(Click here for a photo of Toxoplasma encephalitis)

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