Microbiological profile of respiratory tract infections among HIV-infected and HIV-non infected patients: A comparative study

Background: The respiratory tract infections are among the first few secondary infections commonly seen in HIV infected patients. Hence, this study was undertaken to document the occurrence of bacterial and fungal respiratory tract infections in HIV infected patients. Materials and methods: Expectorated and induced sputum samples were collected from 961 HIV-reactive patients and 300 HIV-nonreactive patients and processed for routine bacterial and fungal pathogens. Results: Out of 961 samples, 532 (55.36%) showed presence of routine bacterial and fungal pathogens. While 300 HIV non-infected RTI patients showed 73 (24.33%) bacterial or fungal pathogens. Among the findings, Mycobacterium tuberculosis constituted the highest number, 209 (21.14 %), followed by other bacterial infections, 117 (18.41%), and fungi, 66 (3.03%). The study showed that males were infected with HIV more than females and most of them belonged to the adult age group in the prime of their working life. Weight loss followed by fever and cough were the most common symptoms. Conclusion: When pathogens from both HIV infected and non-infected groups are compared and probability value was calculated it was found highly significant with p <0.001. M. tuberculosis is the most common opportunistic pathogen with probability value of <0.02 followed by bacterial pathogens (p<0.5) causing respiratory tract infections in HIV, when they were compared with findings of HIV non-infected RTI patients. HIV/RTI infected patients mean CD4 count was 339.10 + 84.0 cells/μL and mean CD4 count of identified pathogen was 263.85 + 94.47 cells/μL, i.e. with lowering of immune status higher chances of opportunistic infections.