James Pham1,2, Deshan Sebaratnam1,2
- Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales
- Department of Dermatology, Liverpool Hospital
Last reviewed: Jan 2024
Next review due: March 2029
Acknowledgement: We would like to acknowledge Alexis Lara Rivero, Mark Kelly, Cassy Workman & Margot Whitfeld as the original authors of this section and David Wong for providing independent review of the current version.
Introduction
Dermatological conditions may present at any stage of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Cutaneous manifestations may be the initial sign of HIV infection as part of a seroconversion illness, patients may develop drug reactions, or infectious, inflammatory or neoplastic disease as part of their immune dysregulation.
Since the advent of combination antiretroviral therapy (ART), dermatological presentations are increasingly encountered in the setting of immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS). Furthermore, due to longer life-expectancy and improvements in HIV-associated mortality due to ART, there has been a greater appreciation of dermatological issues arising in people living with HIV (PLWHIV). (1)
Although some skin conditions occur almost exclusively in PLWHIV, the spectrum of dermatological conditions is otherwise similar to that found in the general population. These general dermatological problems may be atypical in presentation however. Depending on the degree of immunodeficiency they are often less responsive to the usual therapies or require unique management considerations.