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Reminder of important clinical lesson
CASE REPORT
Case of undiagnosed pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP)
  1. Verda Arshad1,
  2. Nousheen Iqbal2,
  3. Haider Ali Saleem1,
  4. Muhammad Irfan2
  1. 1Aga Khan Medical College, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan
  2. 2Section of Pulmonology and Critical Care, Department of Medicine, Aga Khan University and Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan
  1. Correspondence to Dr Nousheen Iqbal, naush_gr8smcian{at}hotmail.com

Summary

Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) is an opportunistic fungal infection that is usually seen in immunocompromised patients, especially those with HIV, malignancies, organ transplants and on drug therapies like chemotherapy and steroids. PCP has subacute presentation in patients with AIDS which if left untreated gets worse and is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. Here we present a case of PCP went undiagnosed, partially due to the patient being unaware of his HIV positive status and partially because no organism could be found under the microscope.

  • hiv / aids
  • pneumonia (infectious Disease)

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2017-221871

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors VA and HAS have equally contributed to the drafting of the manuscript and literature search. NI was responsible for drafting the manuscript and revising it critically for important intellectual content. MI critically analysed the case and was the primary physician.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.