Isolation of enteric pathogens from HIV positive patients and their correlation with cd4+ t lymphocyte count

Author(s): Shiv Kumar, Babita Sharma*, Saroj Hooja, Nitya Vyas

Abstract

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is a serious problem throughout the world. Diarrhea is one of the most common gastrointestinal complications and affects up to 80 percent of patients with HIV and is the presenting symptom of approximately a third of patients with HIV. This study was conducted to define the microbial etiologies of diarrhea and to compare the magnitude and distribution of pathogens isolated from stool samples of HIV positive patients with diarrhea by using different diagnostic techniques and to determine their relationship with CD4+ T lymphocyte cell count. Stool samples from seventy HIV positive patients with diarrhea and seventy HIV negative patients with diarrhea were examined for presence of parasites and bacteria by different diagnostic techniques. CD4 +T lymphocytes count of HIV positive patients was done by BDFACS Calibur flow cytometery. Parasites were isolated from 54 (77.14%) of HIV positive patients with diarrhea. Cryptosporidium parvum (32.86%) was the most common parasite followed by Microsporidia sp. (14.29%) and Isospora belli (10%) which was significantly higher than the control group. Candida species (30%) were isolated more from HIV positive patients. Opportunistic parasites were isolated from the patients with CD 4+ T lymphocyte count between 200-499/µl. It is important to understand the microbial etiologies of diarrhea among these cases so that appropriate medical investigations, specific therapy and adequate nutritional counseling can be started on time which will help to reduce the socioeconomic and medical costs of this disease in our country.

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