TNF and retinitis: In Brazil, an association of the TNFα-308A allele with susceptibility to HIV-1 infection was observed; however, unlike our study, this was done in the Southeast region of the country and analyzed individuals diagnosed with AIDS who had clinical manifestation of retinitis by CMV [25]; another study, also conducted in the same region, investigated polymorphisms in the genes of IL-18 and IFNγ in patients with lipodystrophy; however, no influence of the IFNγ-874A allele was found [26].