Since December 2013, chikungunya virus (CHIKV) spread in many countries of the Western Hemisphere, and during the last year some cases of infected European travelers, coming back from the Caribbean, have been reported. The risk of acquiring severe travel-related illness is higher in immunocompromised subjects, such as patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection or solid organ transplant recipients. We reported the first case, to our knowledge, of CHIKV infection in an HIV-infected kidney transplant recipient.

The high cardiovascular risk of HIV infected (HIV þ ) patients is still partly unexplained. We aimed to evaluate if HIV infection and highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) are linked per se to left ventricular (LV) remodelling, independently of blood pressure (BP) values. We enrolled 4 groups of patients matched by gender, age, body mass index and smoking habit: 30 HIV þ hypertensives, 30 HIV þ normotensives, 30 notinfected (HIVÀ) hypertensives and 30 HIVÀ normotensives. HIV þ patients were on chronic HAART. Hypertension was newly diagnosed (p6 months) and never treated. Each patient underwent blood tests, 24-h BP monitoring and LV echocardiogram. The 4 groups had similar fasting glucose and cholesterol; triglycerides, HOMA index and prevalence of metabolic syndrome were higher in the HIV þ groups. Despite similar 24-h BP values, HIV þ hypertensives had greater LV mass and higher prevalence of preclinical diastolic dysfunction than HIVÀ hypertensives. Compared to HIVÀ normotensives, HIV þ normotensives had similar 24-h BP values, but greater LV mass and lower LV diastolic indices, similar to HIVÀ hypertensives, whose 24-h BP values were higher. Asymptomatic HIV infection and chronic HAART are associated with myocardial hypertrophy and preclinical diastolic dysfunction, independently of BP values.