The changing face of HIV pathology: a personal perspective.

Human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) became a significant new disease complex in the 1980s. The wide range of associated pathologies came from pathological observation of living and dead patients. The opportunistic infections and cancers, systemic wasting syndromes and direct HIV-induced damage to most organs are well described, but new syndromes will probably emerge. The major change in HIV clinical pathology happened after 1996 when effective anti-HIV chemotherapy became available and AIDS ceased to be a death sentence. Complications of the new therapies will continue to present, requiring vigilance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]