Influence of highly active antiretroviral therapy on the outcome of subclinical visceral leishmaniasis in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients.

Seventeen human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients who were harboring untreated subclinical visceral leishmaniasis (VL) were prospectively followed up. None of the 11 patients who received highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) presented with symptomatic VL during follow-up, whereas 2 out of 6 patients who received therapy other than HAART had an episode of overt kala-azar. These findings suggest that HAART does not induce the evolution of latent VL into symptomatic disease.