ABSTRACT
Patients with disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may present with both the full spectrum of general neurological conditions, as well as a more specific range of HIV-related illnesses. Headache in a patient with HIV is more often due to migraine than to intracranial infection. Of course, patients do present with neurological manifestations of HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) is standard therapy in many countries. HAART comprises a combination of three or more antiretroviral drugs, usually two nucleo-side-analogue reverse-transcriptase inhibitors and one or more protease inhibitors. The blood CD4 lymphocyte count and viral load give an indication of the current level of infection and guide the timing of initiation of treatment. Prior to the availability of HAART, the CD4 count was useful in guiding the neurologist to the likely group of diagnoses at particular stages of the disease and this remains useful in untreated patients.
