Slims Disease

Sera, all 70 pounds of her

Sera is a new patient on the TB ward this week.  She has the classic history of months of weight loss, fever, cough, night sweats and diarrhea.  Her sputum was positive for TB.  Patients with HIV have a 10-15% chance of acquiring active TB each year accounting for the large amount of TB that we see.  To no ones surprise Sera's HIV test was positive.  

She illustrates why when HIV was first recognized as an illness here in Africa it was called Slims Disease.  She was also extremely anemic and after a blood transfusion and a couple days of TB medications she is feeling better with no fever.  We will start her HIV medications in another 10 days.