High Fever- Dyspnea: Diagnosis of AIDS in the Emergency Department

Cases with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may present at the emergency departments at any stage of the disease. We have presented a patient presenting with acute onset of weakness, dysphagia, cough and hoarseness, who was subsequently diagnosed as pneumonia and AIDS. A fifty-year-old male patient presented at the emergency department with symptoms of generalized weakness, high fever, dysphagia and hoarseness of acute onset. The respiration rate was 35/min, body temperature: 38.8°C, pulse: 110/min, and O 2 saturation: 88%. On physical examination, sores with white plaques were found in the oral mucosa and pharynx. In both lungs, auscultation revealed rales in the basal regions. Chest X-Ray revealed consolidation in the basal regions of both lungs. Considering all the clinical findings, a clinical state was thought to be causing pneumonia on the basis of immune suppression, and the Anti-HIV test was requested. Upon a positive test result, the patient was hospitalized with the diagnoses of pneumonia and AIDS. The patient was followed up at the intensive care unit and died due to respiratory failure. AIDS is the first disease to be suspected and confirmed in cases presenting at the emergency departments with non-specific symptoms, together with a potential of immune suppression.