Abstract
Cryptosporidiosis, Isosporiasis and Microsporidiosis are the major intestinal coccidian parasitic infections, reported in HIV-infected patients and are the key parasitic diseases included in the Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) case definitions for AIDS. The present study seeks to find the association between immune status, treatment status and duration of diarrhoea in HIV infected patients and risk of acquiring enteric coccidian infections. Isospora belli was the commonest parasite (73% of parasites) followed by Cryptosporidium (13%) , Cyclospora (7%) and Blastocystis hominis (7%); one case of mixed infection with Isospora belli and Blastocystis hominis. More parasites were isolated from patients with chronic diarrhoea than those without (p 0.01). Coccidian parasites were more commonly detected in HIV positive patients with CD4+ T cell counts between 50 to 200cells/l (p 0.01). Isolation of enteric parasites was significantly more common in patients before the administration of antiretroviral therapy (p 0.05).
Highlights
The major target for HIV is CD4+ T cell; a vital component of Cell mediated Immunity for combating intestinal parasitic infections
Isospora belli was the only parasite detected in patients with chronic diarrhoea
A contradictory finding was revealed by Certad et al[7] who noted that a significant proportion of patients with Isosporiasis had acute diarrhoea
Summary
The major target for HIV is CD4+ T cell; a vital component of Cell mediated Immunity for combating intestinal parasitic infections. A reduction in CD4+ T cell count predisposes HIV infected patients to various opportunistic coccidian enteric parasitic infections. Administration of Highly Active Anti Retroviral Therapy would lower the HIV viraemia; boost the immune response leading to clearance of these parasites. Several studies were carried out in India[1,2] and abroad[3,4,5] to correlate the immune status and treatment status of HIV patients with the prevalence of these parasitic infections. The present study was carried out to evaluate the role of the treatment status, immune status and duration of diarrhoea as predictors of acquiring coccidian infections in HIV/AIDS patients
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