Coinfection of Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex virus, human papillomavirus and anal intraepithelial neoplasia in HIV patients in Amazon, Brazil

objective: the prevention of anal cancer is a goal of worldwide aids support centers. despite the efforts that have been made and progress in the antiretroviral therapy, effective disease control remains elusive. difficulty in preventing anal cancer may result from the ineffectiveness of highly active antiretroviral therapy on the human papillomavirus (hpv) since the coinfection with hiv and hpv appears to increase the risk of hpv-infected cells, becoming cancerous. methods: we evaluated 69 hiv-positive and 30 hiv-negative male patients who underwent cytological evaluation by rt-pcr for the presence of hpv, epstein-barr virus, cytomegalovirus and herpes virus types (hsv) 1 and 2, and histopathology analysis of the anal canal. results: the prevalence of anal intraepithelial neoplasia was 35% and it was restricted to hiv-positive patients. patients infected with high-risk hpv and with fewer than 50 tcd4 cells/μl showed an anal intraepithelial neoplasia rate of 85.7% compared to those with tcd4 cells >200 cells/μl (p<0.01). the rate of viral coinfection was 16.9% of the sexual transmitted diseases cases and it was correlated with hiv-1 viral load of more than 10.001 copies/ml (p=0.017). the rate of ain in coinfected patients was 36.4% (p=0.047). conclusions: in this study, at the main institution for the treatment of hiv/aids in the amazon region of brazil, anal coinfection with hpv, cytomegalovirus, hsv-1, hsv-2 and epstein-barr virus occurred only in hiv-positive patients and it was directly influenced by the viral load of hiv-1. in this study, anal viral coinfection showed no additional risk for the development of anal intraepithelial neoplasia.