HIV infection, malaria

1. Big picture

This topic combines two high-yield infectious disease patterns:

HIV infection is a chronic retroviral infection causing progressive CD4+ T-lymphocyte depletion, leading to opportunistic infections, malignancies, and systemic complications if untreated. The exam focus is: diagnosis, CD4 count interpretation, viral load, opportunistic infections, antiretroviral therapy, prevention, and HIV–TB association.

Malaria is an acute parasitic infection transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes. The exam focus is: fever after travel to the tropics, periodic chills/fever, anemia, splenomegaly, thick/thin blood smear, and severe falciparum malaria emergency treatment.