Abstract:
Mycobacteria leprae(leprosy) and HIV coinfection are rare in Kenya. This is likely related to the low prevalence (1 per 10,000 of
population) of leprosy. Because leprosy is no longer a public health challenge there is generally a low index of suspicion amongst
clinicians for its diagnosis. Management of a HIV-1-leprosy-coinfected individual in a resource-constrained setting is challenging.
Some of these challenges include difficulties in establishing a diagnosis of leprosy; the high pill burden of cotreatment with both
antileprosy and antiretroviral drugs (ARVs); medications’ side effects; drug interactions; scarcity of drug choices for both diseases.
This challenge is more profound when managing a patient who requires second-line antiretroviral therapy (ART). We present an
adult male patient coinfected with HIV and leprosy, who failed first-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) and required second-line
treatment. Due to limited choices in antileprosy drugs available, the patient received monthly rifampicin and daily lopinavir-
/ritonavir-based antileprosy and ART regimens, respectively. Six months into his cotreatment, he seemed to have adequate
virological control. This case report highlights the challenges of managing such a patien
