Causes of Infection and CD4+ Counts in Patients with HIV/AIDS

Infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes progressive dysfunction of cell-mediated immune system. HIV-related immunosuppression significantly increases the risk for acquiring opportunistic infections due to bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, and protozoa. These opportunistic infections are a major source of morbidity and mortality in HIV-infected patients. These infections have different clinical manifestations in terms of etiological factors and infected organ. Awareness of these infections and infected organs can help physicians for early diagnosis and appropriate therapeutic intervention. In a cross-sectional study during 2006-2010, all HIV infected patients who had been admitted to Alzahra Hospital (Isfahan, Iran) with the diagnosis of infection were studied. Demographic information, etiology of infection, kind of infected organ, and CD4+ (cluster of differentiation 4) count were surveyed and analyzed by statistical tests. The etiology of infection among the 64 studied patients was bacterial (68.8%), viral (15.6%), protozoal (10.9%), and fungal (4.7%). The most and least commonly infected organs were respiratory system (28.1%) and gastrointestinal system (1.6%), respectively. The mean CD4+ counts in bacterial, viral, fungal, and protozoal infections were 190.5, 170.9, 203.7, and 158.1, respectively. The most common etiology of infection was bacterial infections and the most common infected organ was respiratory system. The mean CD4+ count was 185. According to the analysis of variance, the mean CD4+ counts did not significantly differ based on the infected organ or the type of infection.