Prognosis
PCP occurring in a patient is an indicator of something going seriously wrong elsewhere.
A poor prognosis is anticipated by the administration of prophylactic antibiotics (co-trimoxazole and inhaled pentamidine) to people with known HIV infection as their CD4 positive count falls below 200.
Overall in-hospital mortality rates are 15% for HIV-infected patients and 50% in some HIV-uninfected patients (1) but one 17-year retrospective study found in-hospital mortality rates of 25.4%, increasing to 58% if ICU admission was required. (2)
References
- Cilloniz C, Dominedo C, Alvarez-Martinez MJ, et al; Pneumocystis pneumonia in the twenty-first century: HIV-infected versus HIV-uninfected patients. Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther. 2019 Oct;17(10):787-801
- Schmidt JJ, Lueck C, Ziesing S, et al. Clinical course, treatment and outcome of Pneumocystis pneumonia in immunocompromised adults: a retrospective analysis over 17 years. Crit Care. 2018 Nov 19;22(1):307
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