i was diagnosed with pml almost a year ago. i have only known of my hiv status for the same amount of time. now my neurologist and id dr. are not sure if it is pml. they think it could be a fungal or bacterial infection, or a non-cancerous mass. i am having a biopsy to finally know for sure. about 6 years ago i had a skin rash that was determined to be lichen plantus. i have been searching the web to find out about other infections of the brain, with no luck. my neurologist said whatever it is it seems to be mimicking ms. do you know of other infections that could be doing this, and could the lichen plantus have stayed in my system and cause this? my dr. feel i've been positive for at least 10 yrs.

Lots of germs can rarely cause brain infections. Sometimes HIV encephalopathy (brain infection) is mistaken for PML. If you are taking combination medicine for HIv and are doing well with your viral load and CD4 count, that alone is enough to make some people with PML or HIV encephalopathy better. I don't think your problem is related to the lichen planus, and if you neurologic symptoms are improving, I'm not even sure that a biopsy will be useful. However, if your symptoms are persistent, then a biopsy may be useful.