title: Current trends of opportunistic infections among HIV-seropositive patients from Eastern India.
abstract: In this report we describe the clinical and laboratory profiles of different opportunistic infections (OIs) among 125 immunocompromised patients admitted to a referral hospital in the eastern part of India. Different pathogens were isolated, identified and characterized using the laboratory gold standard methods. Oral candidiasis (88%) was found to be the most common OI, followed by tuberculosis (57%), enteropathogenic Vibrio (47%), cytomegalovirus infection (45%), cryptosporidial diarrhea (43%), Escherichia coli infection (42%) and other infections among the study subjects. Statistical analysis of the case studies shows 120/cumm median CD4+ blood cell count, and the OIs showed an inversely proportional occurrence to the CD4+ count of the immunocompromised patients. The spectrum and frequency of certain OIs highlight the urgency of studying HIV/AIDS in resource-limited countries where locally specific disease patterns may be observed. The purpose of the present investigation was the identification of such opportunistic pathogens, as we feel the HIV epidemic can be more effectively managed if physicians and health planners are aware of this information.
authors.affiliation: Indian Council of Medical Research, Virus Unit, Kolkata, ID and BG Hospital, Kolkata, India. nilanjan_19@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Nilanjan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chakraborty
authors.forename: Anirban
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mukherjee
authors.forename: Santanu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Santra
authors.forename: Rathindra Nath
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Sarkar
authors.forename: Dipanjan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Banerjee
authors.forename: Shubhashish Kamal
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Guha
authors.forename: Sekhar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chakraborty
authors.forename: Sujit Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Bhattacharyya
mesh_terms: D017088:AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000821:virology; D000328:Adult; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D002180:Candidiasis, Oral / Q000453:epidemiology; D003586:Cytomegalovirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016867:Immunocompromised Host; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D014735:Vibrio Infections / Q000453:epidemiology