Incidence of tuberculosis and opportunistic respiratory infections in cases of human immunodeficiency virus: a one-year study at a tertiary care hospital

Background: Evaluation of respiratory signs and symptoms among HIV patients is a challenging task for a number of reasons. A definitive diagnosis is highly recommended before starting management protocol. Objectives of this study was to primarily evaluate the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis and opportunistic respiratory infections among the cases of HIV and to estimate the CD4 counts of all the patients and correlate with the respiratory infections among the cases.Methods: The present study was a one-year study conducted at Narayana Medical College and all the cases of HIV presented with signs and symptoms of lower respiratory tract infections were included after obtaining consent. Relevant biochemical, microbiological investigations and CD4 counts of all the cases were done and noted. The data was entered in Microsoft excel spread sheet and analysed for any corrections. Mean, median and SD was calculated for all the continuous variables.Results: A total of 127 cases with 87 males and females 40 females with a ratio of 2.2:1 were included. Mean age of the total cases in the study was 46.12±8.3 years and 29.92% were above 60 years. Hetero sexual exposure was the commonest cause and 59.84% of cases were diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia. Prevalence of tuberculosis among the cases of this study was 22.05%. The mean CD4 cell count with SD among the study was 168.57±142.21.Conclusions: Knowledge of the pattern of pulmonary complications in patients with HIV infection in relation to CD4 count will help clinicians develop faster diagnostic and therapeutic approach to patient management.