A study of prevalence of Pap smear abnormalities in HIV seropositive women

Background: Cervical Cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide. Studies now clearly demonstrate an increased risk of precancerous cervical lesions and a more rapid progression to cancer amongst HIV infected women particularly those with low CD4 cell counts or decreasing immunity. Objective: To determine the prevalence of abnormal Pap smears in HIV-positive women and to correlation between CD4+ cell count and abnormal Pap smear among HIV infected women. Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study included all HIV positive women,18-69 years who had been or were sexually active and were attending the HIV clinic and consented to participate in the study and have a pap smear done to them. Results: From 20-08-2015 to 20-10-2016 a total of 100 women infected with HIV had cervical smear taken for cytology. Of the 100 who were recruited for the study, cervical SIL were present in 20 (20%) of those with cervical SIL, 11 (11%) women had low-grade SIL, 5 (5%) had ASCUS, 2 (2%) had high-grade SIL, 1 (1%) had SCC and 1 (1%) had AGC-H. A CD4 lymphocyte count of <200 cells/mm3 was found to be significantly associated with cervical SIL.,WHO stage 4 was found to be statistically significant association with cervical SIL, use of HAART was found to be associated with cervical SIL. Conclusion: A high prevalence of cervical SIL was found among HIV-infected women. Increased immune suppression was significantly associated with cervical SIL.