HIV infection can cause a range of behavioral disorders due to neurological disorders (neuropsychiatric sequelae), which is caused by infection with organisms of the nervous system that have become vulnerable, or as a direct result of the disease itself.
Toxoplasmosis is a disease caused by a single-celled parasites, called Toxoplasma gondii. This parasite usually infects the brain and causes acute encephalitis (Toxoplasma encephalitis), but it can also infect and cause disease in the eyes and lungs.
Cryptococcal meningitis is an infection of the meninges (membranes covering the brain and spinal cord) by the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans. It can cause fever, headache, fatigue, nausea, and vomiting. Patients also may experience convulsions and confusion, which if untreated can be deadly.
Leukoensefalopati is progressive multifocal demyelinating disease, which is a disease that destroys nerve sheath (myelin) that covers nerve cell fibers (axons), thus damaging the delivery of nerve impulses. It is caused by the JC virus, which contained 70% of the population in the human body in a latent condition, and cause disease only when the immune system is weakened, as occurs in AIDS patients. The disease is growing rapidly (progressive) and spread (multilokal), so that usually causes death within a month after diagnosis.
AIDS dementia complex is a disease of mental decline (dementia) that occur because of decreased brain cell metabolism (metabolic encephalopathy) caused by HIV infection, and driven also by the occurrence of immune activation by macrophages and microglia in the brain that become infected with HIV, so that secrete neurotoxins.
Damage to the nerve specific, abnormalities appear in the form of cognitive, behavioral, and motor, which appeared many years after HIV infection occurs. This is related to the low state of CD4 + T cell counts and high viral loads in blood plasma. Figures occurrence (prevalence) in Western countries is around 10-20%, but in India only occurs in 1-2% of people with HIV infection. This difference may occur because of different HIV subtypes in India.
