Antifungal drugs can clear infection. Soon after infection, clients require major assistance with tasks of daily living and often become bed-bound. Death usually results within several months. There are encouraging reports of a small number of clients who stabilize in response to experimental treatments. Lymphoma, a cancer originating in the lymphatic system, can invade the brain and cause cognitive impairment, behavioral and personality changes, and neurologic deficits.
Radiation therapy is the most effective form of treatment for brain lymphoma.
Common HIV-related opportunistic infections and cancers of the central nervous system are a significant cause of cognitive impairment and, like other opportunistic infections, manifest when the immune system is significantly weakened. Toxoplasmosis Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that is able to live within human cells, causes the most common HIV-related opportunistic infection of the brain. Toxoplasmosis is the AIDS-defining diagnosis for approximately 5 percent of people with AIDS in the United States. When the toxoplasma organism becomes active, it typically causes multiple infectious masses in different parts of the brain. Common presenting symptoms of toxoplasmosis include fever and constant headache.