Paraquat Poisoning in Patients with HIV Infection

Paraquat poisoning is very severe. Most victims, including those who have ingested a small amount, will die from Paraquat poisoning. The cause of death in the majority of such cases is lung fibrosis. Paraquat poisoning in patients with positive human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection status has seldom been reported. Herein, we report a case of an HIV patient with Paraquat poisoning who had an excellent outcome even without standard treatment. Currently, only 3 such cases have been reported in the literature and in each case there was a good outcome, which was not expected according to predictive models. A possible mechanism may involve the relative lack of functional macrophages in HIV patients, which would tend to result in much less severe lung injury. None of the available predictive models of Paraquat poisoning appear to be appropriate for HIV patients. Paraquat poisoning in HIV patients may have better survival due to less lung injury.