Ocular Manifestations in HIV/AIDS- Prevalence in South India

Human immune deficiency virus (HIV) related ocular manifestations may affect 50-75% of HIV infected people worldwide at some point during the course of their illness.

Aim: To estimate the prevalence of Ocular manifestations in HIV patients attending the Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) centre.

Place and Duration of the Study: ART centre at Government general hospital and Department of Pharmacology, Siddhartha Medical College, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh in south India. The study was conducted for six months from January 2010 to June 2010.

Study Design: This was a cross-sectional and observational study done on 1003 patients with or without ocular manifestations.

Methodology: All the patients were examined for anterior and posterior segment by using slit lamp and indirect ophthalmoscopy. Visual acuity was recorded in all patients.

Results: The prevalence of HIV associated ocular diseases was seen in 24.32 % of HIV patients. The most common findings were seen in anterior segment in 157(15.65%) patients followed by posterior segment in 87(8.67%) patients. 8.57% of conjunctival microvasculopathy, 1.59% of uveitis, 1.19% of herpes zoster and 0.89% of xerosis were the most common findings seen in the anterior segment. 2.47% of HIV retinopathy, 0.99% of chorioretinitis, 0.89% of cytomegaloviral retinitis, 0.69% of choroiditis, and 0.69% of optic atrophy were the most common posterior segment findings. Tuberculosis was the main systemic finding seen in 156 patients.

Conclusion: All these ocular findings are directly related to the severity of the clinical stage of the disease and to the severity of immunosupression.