Murugesh Pastapur1, Nagangouda2, Veerabhadra Swamy3
BACKGROUND
Timely assessment of the burden of HIV/AIDS is essential for policy setting and programme evaluation. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection is a global pandemic with cases reported from virtually every country. According to World Health Organization (WHO), globally 35 million (32.8-38.8 million) people were living with HIV at end of 2013. To study the various pulmonary opportunistic infections in HIV/AIDS and association with CD+4 T-cell count. The aim of the study is to study clinical profile of pulmonary opportunistic infections. A cross-sectional study was done among 100 newly-diagnosed HIV patients of all the age groups and either gender admitted from March 2013 to April 2014 in Basaveshwara Teaching and Teaching Hospital attached to MR Medical College, Kalaburagi.
MATERIALS AND METHODS A detailed history was recorded with emphasis on personal history, high-risk behaviour, history of migration, mode of transmission of infection and complete thorough clinical examination was done. Data analysis was done by calculating P value using Chi-square test. ICTC was done in Basaveshwara Hospital for confirming HIV status of the patients.
RESULTS
Out of 100 patients, 3 patients were asymptomatic, while 97 patients were symptomatic. Main symptoms were cough (75%), fever (65%), weight loss (55%), dyspnoea (32%) and diarrhoea (10%). The most common opportunistic infection was pulmonary tuberculosis (77%) followed by candidiasis (58%).
CONCLUSION
The Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) has reduced the incidence of OI among HIV infected individuals. Majority of the patients with opportunistic infections have CD4 count less than 200 cells/µL. Enormous progress has been made in reducing HIV deaths, especially in low-income countries through the expansion of prevention of mother-to-child transmission and by early detection of HIV infection by easily available and free of cost ICTC testing through the ART programmes funded largely through development assistance for HIV.
