Clinical profile of people living with human immunodeficiency virus

Background: Clinical manifestations in people living with human immunodeficiency virus infection (PLHIV) can be protean.Methods: We studied the clinical profile, neurological, cardiac manifestations and opportunistic infections (OIs) at the time of diagnosis in PLHIV at our medical college tertiary care teaching hospital in Solapur, Maharashtra, India.Results: Majority of patients (36%) were observed in the age group of 31-40 years. The mmost common presenting complaint was fever (65%), followed by anorexia (34%), weight loss (33%), cough (22%) and fatigue (21%). Diarrhoea and headache were seen in 15% and 13% of the patients, respectively. Most of the patients had weight between 31 and 40 kg and 41 and 50 kg (48% in each). On general physical examination pallor (63%), oral thrush (30.4%) were commonly seen. Genital lesions and icterus were seen in 4.3% and 2.1% of the patients, respectively. Majority (31%) of patients had CD4+ counts (/mm3) in the range 151 and 200. Most of the of patients (30%) had respiratory system involvement. Central nervous system (CNS) and gastrointestinal system manifestations were seen in 21% and 15% of the patients, respectively. Among infections tuberculosis (TB) was most common (46%) followed by Candidiasis (18%), Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) (9.2%) and cryptococcosis (8.7%). Other infections seen were herpes (5.2%), Cryptosporidium parvum (3.9%), Isospora belli (2.6%), toxoplasmosis (2.6%), cytomegalovirus (CMV) (1.3%), hepatitis B (1.3%) and Epstein–Barr virus (1.3%).Conclusions: TB is a common cause of morbidity in PLHIV. They further merit careful evaluation for assessing involvement of various organ systems, OIs.