However, in individuals with weakened immune systems due to cancer, HIV/AIDS, solid organ and/or bone marrow transplantation, as well as individuals receiving chronic corticosteroids or other medications which affect the immune system, Pneumocystis carinii may lead to a lung infection. 

Individuals with advanced AIDS are of particular interest, since PCP was a relatively rare infection prior to the AIDS epidemic. Before the use of preventive antibiotics for PCP, up to 70% of individuals in the U.S. with advanced AIDS would develop PCP. 

PCP in the setting of AIDS usually presents with a more indolent course -- several weeks of cough, fevers, and progressive shortness of breath, especially with exertion. Individuals with PCP who do not have AIDS usually present over a shorter period of time and are more acutely ill.

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