Successful treatment of Cytomegalovirus (CMV) pneumonitis with a short course of intravenous ganciclovir and early antiretroviral therapy: a case report

Abstract

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a double-stranded DNA virus, the largest in the Herpesvirus family. CMV disease  in adults usually arises from reactivation of latent infection acquired in childhood, individuals with impaired cell mediated immunity are at risk: organ transplant recipients, individuals on chemotherapy or other immunosuppressive therapies, patients with autoimmune conditions and patients with HIV/AIDS with very low CD4 counts.¹ Despite earlier controversies about whether CMV pneumonitis in patients infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was a stand-alone clinical entity or not,² CMV pneumonitis is now a recognized clinical entity.³ We describe here a case of confirmed CMV pneumonitis in a newly diagnosed HAART naïve HIV infected patient which followed a protracted course before the correct diagnosis was made, and subsequently responded well to specific antiviral therapy and HAART.