Impact of the human immunodeficiency virus infection on emergency medicine department in a tertiary care hospital in India.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the impact of HIV infection on emergency medicine department services.


METHODS
The demographic and clinical data of all the HIV reactive individuals admitted to the emergency medicine department (EMD) were analyzed by reviewing the case records retrospectively.


RESULTS
Of the 1187 HIV reactive cases detected during a period of 10 years, 435 cases were admitted to the EMD. 90% of the patients were unaware of their HIV reactive status. Prolonged perplexing pyrexia was the commonest presentation (73.4%) followed by Tuberculosis (53%). Neurological complications, AIDS enteropathy were also seen to rise over the years. Road traffic accidents/polytrauma/an acute cardiac event contributed to 7.6% of the cases who otherwise had no symptoms related to the HIV infection.


CONCLUSIONS
The rate of increase in HIV reactivity, among the patients presenting to the EMD assumes significance as they could potentially transmit HIV infection to the health care personnel following exposure to body secretions of the patient during resuscitation. The study emphasizes the importance of stringent practice of universal precautions irrespective of the HIV status by all health care workers at all levels, especially in the EMD.
Teja
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VD
Department of Microbiology, Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Punjagutta, Hyderabad - 500 082, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Lakshmi
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V
Sudha
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