Abstract
Background: Tuberculosis is the most frequent cause of serious respiratory infection in people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA), but other pulmonary conditions are often over looked or not diagnosed in resource limited areas. This study looks at pulmonary manifestations in PLHA in an urban setting in India.
Methods: All newly diagnosed PLHAs under care of a unit of Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine were prospectively studied over a period of one year. Patients presenting acutely having cough for more than 2 weeks with any one or more of fever, chest pain or tachypnoea were included in the study. Investigations included sputum for gram stain & culture, AFB stain, Chest X-ray (CXR) and Computerised tomography(CT) scan of the chest, where indicated. CD4 counts were available in some cases.
Results: A total of 559 PLHA's were included. Of the 77 patients meeting the study criteria, 77(100%) had cough, 73(95%) had fever, 41(53%) had chest pain, 33(43%) had tachypnoea. Conditions diagnosed are shown below.
Conditions diagnosed
The mean CD4 counts for patients with the conditions above were as follows: TB 115 cells/ml, pneumonia 141 cells/ml and PJP 88 cells/ml.
Conclusions: Although TB is the most frequent cause of pulmonary infection in this group of patients several other conditions are seen. This information has public health importance to ensure correct diagnostic pathways are developed to allow correct treatment and proper allocation of limited health resources.
- © 2012 ERS
