Tuberculosis and other clinical presentation of HIV/AIDS in patients with or without undergoing antiretroviral therapy in Kathmandu.

OBJECTIVES: To screen tuberculosis (TB) and examine the clinical presentation of AIDS in HIV sero-positive persons.

METHODS: A Cross-sectional study was designed. One hundred HIV infected persons were randomly selected from different parts of the country visiting Tribhuvan University, Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu and different HIV/AIDS care centres. After taking informed consent, questionnaires were filled and three sputum specimens from each person were collected to investigate tuberculosis by Ziehl-Neelsen staining and culture. Data generated were entered into SPSS 11.5 and relevant statistical tools were applied.

RESULTS: Among 100 HIV infected cases, 66 (66%) were males and 34 (34%) were females. Sixty percent of the cases were in the age group of 21-30 years. Majority of them were Smokers (41%), alcoholics (34%), illiterates (54%) and unemployed (59%). Heterosexual activity (51%) was found to be the major risk factor for HIV infection. Of the 100 HIV cases, 23 (23%) were co-infected with tuberculosis of which 18(78%) were sputum smear negative tuberculosis, mostly developed in late stage of HIV infection. Weight loss (54%) and diarrhoea (43%) were the major clinical presentations of AIDS. Antiretro-viral therapy non-receiver were more likely to suffer with various clinical disorders/TB as compared to ARV therapy receiver but the values were statistically insignificant, 2 values ranging from 0.003 to 2.24, p>0.05.

CONCLUSION: Prevalence of tuberculosis was still high in HIV/AIDS patients, and specifically, sputum smear negative tuberculosis cases constituted the significant proportion, particularly in late stage of HIV infection. Weight loss and diarrhoea were found to be the major clinical presentation of AIDS. Illiterate and unemployed young adults involved in unsafe sexual practice and drug addiction were high risk of acquiring HIV infection. Key words: Clinical features, HIV/AIDS, Kathmandu; Smear Negative Tuberculosis.