Based on the results of entire gastrointestinal endoscopic examinations and subsequent pathological evaluations, we identified three (11%) cases of opportunistic infectious disease. These cases occurred in symptomatic naive HIV-infected patients, thus necessary to doubt harboring opportunistic infections.
As this study aimed to reveal mucosal changes attributable to HIV infection itself, patients with specific opportunistic infectious diseases (e.g., infection with cytomegalovirus (CMV), mycobacteriosis, cryptosporidium, or tuberculosis) were excluded.
Furthermore, if the code for
opportunistic infectious diseases was used for deaths caused by HIV/AIDS, the number of deaths from HIV/ AIDs may have been underestimated (10,24).