CUTANEOUS MANIFESTATIONS OF HIV IN PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS AT TERTIARY CENTRE

Abstract

BACKGROUND-The study was conducted to describe systematic clinical manifestations among HIV in PLHA at tertiary care centre. METHODOLOGY- This study was designed as cross sectional study at Department of Medicine, tertiary care centre. A total of 100 HIV infected patients were included detailed enquiry about presence of skin lesions along with CD4 cell count was obtained and entered in pretested questionnaire RESULTS-The mean age of patients with HIV was 43.9±10.2 years and Slight female preponderance was observed with male: 3 female ratio of 0.89:1. Mean CD4 count was 243.2±103.2 cells/mm . Majority of patients had CD4 count in the range of less than 3 200 cells/mm (64%) Staphylococcal skin infections were the most common skin lesions observed in 34% patients. All the patients with cutaneous manifestations presented in present study had low CD4 cell count. However, no statistically signicant association between CD4 count and cutaneous manifestations could be documented (p>0.05). CONCLUSION-Cutaneous manifestations are more prevalent in patients with lower CD4 counts and can also be observed with normal CD4 count levels amongst patients with HIV. Occurrence of cutaneous manifestations was higher in patients with lower CD4 count but the observed difference was not statistically signicant.