Volume : 2, Issue : 3, March - 2013

Correlation Between Intestinal Parasitic Infection and Chronic Diarrhea in HIV–Positive Patients in a Tertiary care Hospital in Eastern India

Dr. Rina Das, Dr. Bimal Kumar Mandal, Dr. Pulak Kumar Jana

Abstract :

Objectives: To do study of parasite identification and investigate the correlation between parasitic infection and chronic diarrhea in HIV patients. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional prospective study was done between Feuary 2010 to August 2011 at anti retroviral therapy (ART) centre in R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital. The subjects divided in two groups, 100 HIV–positive patients with diarrhea as case and 100 HIV–positive without diarrhea patients as control. In all the patients with freshly passed stool samples were examined by microscopy and CD4 count of blood was done by BD FACS machine (D858001657) with flow cytrometry technique. Results: Intestinal parasites were seen in 34 (35.79%) of the cases whereas only in 6 (6.59%) of the controls. A total of 40 parasite samples were detected from all subjects and Cryptosporidium parvum (50%) detected the most abundantly and Ascaris (2.5%) found least common. The parasitic pathogens in between cases and controls were compared and p=0.00008, i.e highly significant. Moreover, average CD4 count in between cases and controls were compared and p=0.0000002 i.e also highly significant. Conclusion: The identification of the parasitic agents in HIV–positive with chronic diarrhea is very important as it can help appropriate therapy and reduce of morbidity and mortality in these patients. Moreover, the low CD4 cells count in HIV–positive patients are higher rate of parasitic diarrhea infection. Therefore, to improve the CD4 cells count in HIV–positive patients which reduce the parasitic diarrhea, further reduce the financial burden of the patients.