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Eosinophilic Folliculitis HIV Symptoms

Once an individual is diagnosed with HIV, it may be several years or even a decade or more before the virus does enough damage to be called AIDS. On the road to that diagnosis, however, a number of conditions, diseases and infections may appear. A common skin infection that can present itself during early- to middle-stage HIV infection is eosinophilic folliculitis.

  1. Folliculitis

    • Folliculitis is simply the inflammation and successive infection of one or more hair follicles. Typically, folliculitis appears as clusters of pimples with fluid-filled heads. These clusters can appear anywhere but commonly show up on the face and scalp.

    Eosinophils

    • An eosinophil is a type of white blood cell usually found in the vertebrae. As HIV infection begins to affect the immune system, the eosinophils are damaged and find themselves unable to reproduce in time to counter infections. This makes conditions such as infected hair follicles much more common than they would normally be.

    Symptoms and Relation to HIV Infection

    • Symptoms of eosinophilic folliculitis include an itchy rash and redness around the infected area. It is more common in HIV patients than in the general population and usually does not occur until the patient's CD-4 cells drop to a relatively low point. Eosinophilic folliculitis usually occurs when a patient's CD-4 count drops below 400.

    Diagnosis

    • Although it seems as though eosinophilic folliculitis could be diagnosed by simple inspection of the irritated area, it is important that a doctor finds out what sort of infection is actually causing it. The folliculitis could be bacterial or fungal in nature, and knowing which type it is will help the doctor to treat the infection properly. Without taking care of the initial infection, the itchy folliculitis will not go away.

    Treatment

    • Some forms of eosinophilic folliculitis may actually disappear on their own, though they are very likely to return. The first course of treatment in HIV patients is to begin the patient on highly active antiretroviral therapy, or HAART, in order to reduce the HIV viral load (assuming that the patient isn't already receiving HIV drug therapy). This will bring the number of CD-4 cells in the blood up, which allows the immune system to fight the infection and makes the likelihood of future infections much lower. Treatment of the eosinophilic folliculitis itself usually focuses on topical treatments for the itching, such as antihistamines and cortisone-like medications.

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