Fatal dissemination of Strongyloides stercoralis in an HIV-positive patient with preserved immunity: a case report

Hurtado Dominguez J.; Loza Mollinedo S.F. · Therapeutic Advances in Infectious Disease (2026) · DOI: 10.1177/20499361261425327

Resumen

We report the case of a 38-year-old woman with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection diagnosed in 2010 and on antiretroviral treatment since 2014, with an undetectable viral load and a CD4 lymphocyte count of 527 cells/µL. The patient presented with weight loss, fever, hyporexia, nausea, vomiting, progressive dyspnea, purpuric abdominal lesions, and lower extremity edema. During hospitalization, she developed hemoptysis and severe respiratory failure and died a few hours later. Parasitological studies of sputum and stool showed abundant Strongyloides stercoralis larvae, confirming disseminated strongyloidiasis. This case highlights that severe S. stercoralis infection can occur even in patients with clinically controlled HIV, underscoring the need for screening in endemic regions. © The Author(s), 2026. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Instituciones: Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola