Prevalence of Fungemia in People with HIV: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

TL;DR

This study finds that fungal blood infections remain common in HIV patients, especially in Asia, even after the introduction of modern treatments.

Contribution

The study is the first to systematically review and analyze the prevalence of fungemia in HIV patients after 1996.

Findings

The overall pooled prevalence of fungemia in people with HIV was 3.3%.

Talaromyces marneffei was the most common fungal pathogen, mainly in Asia.

Fungemia prevalence was higher before 2015 compared to after, though the difference was not statistically significant.

Abstract

Prior to the introduction of antiretroviral therapy (ART), people with HIV (PWH) had high risk of fungemia. No systematic review has assessed the prevalence of fungemia in PWH after the introduction of combination ART in 1996. The primary objective of this systematic review was to determine the prevalence of fungemia in adult PWH after 1996. Furthermore, we aimed to compare the prevalence of fungemia in different ART time periods to determine geographic differences and fungal pathogen distribution. A systematic literature search was performed on 7 March 2025 across six databases and the study quality was assessed using the Newcastle–Ottawa scale. Prevalence estimates were extracted, and a meta-analysis was performed using a random effects model. Twelve studies comprising 27,729 PWH were included. The overall pooled prevalence in PWH was 3.3% (95% CI: 1.53; 4.96%, I2 = 98.9%). The most common pathogen to cause fungemia was Talaromyces marneffei with a prevalence of 4.8%, although this pathogen was limited to studies from Asia. The highest prevalence of fungemia in PWH was 6.8% in Asia. The prevalence of fungemia was 5.8% between July 1996–September 2015 and 1.0% between September 2015–January 2025, but the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.273). However, all findings were limited by very low certainty of evidence and should be interpreted with caution. In conclusion, our findings suggest that fungemia persists among PWH despite ART, especially in Asia. Given the limited available evidence, it was not possible to determine whether the prevalence of fungemia changed following the change in ART treatment guidelines in September 2015. The protocol is registered in PROSPERO (CRD420251005081).

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