Clinical presentation of hospitalized adult patients with HIV infection and AIDS in Bangkok, Thailand.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the clinical spectrum of disease and immune status of adult HIV-1-infected patients in Bangkok. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey of hospital admissions. METHODS: From November 1993 through June 1996, demographic, clinical, and laboratory data were collected from HIV-infected inpatients (> or =14 years old) at an infectious diseases hospital. RESULTS: Of 16,717 persons admitted, 3112 (18.6%) were HIV-seropositive, 2261 of whom were admitted for the first time. Of 2261, 1926 (85.2%) were male, 1942 (85.9%) had been infected heterosexually or by means not related to drug use, 319 (14.1%) were injection drug users (IDUs), and 1553 (68.7%) had AIDS. The most common AIDS-defining conditions were extrapulmonary cryptococcosis (EPC; 38.4%), tuberculosis (TB; 37.4%), and wasting syndrome (WS; 8.1%). IDUs were more likely (p < .05) to have TB or WS but less likely (p < .05) to have EPC or Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia than patients with no history of injection drug use. Lymphocyte counts were measured for 2047 (90.5%) patients; 81.8% had < or =1500 lymphocytes/microl. CONCLUSION: These HIV-infected patients were admitted with severe immunosuppression. Cryptococcosis and TB are major problems and differ in prevalence among IDUs and persons infected sexually. Clinical and immunologic information is critical in improving the lives of HIV-infected persons in Asia through prevention, treatment, and prophylaxis.

Cryptosporidiosis in HIV infected patients in Thailand.

Diarrhea, mostly chronic diarrhea and weight loss are common in patients with AIDS. Cryptosporidium had been identified as responsible for chronic, debilitating secretory diarrhea in HIV infected patients. We performed a retrospective study of the prevalence, clinical features and laboratory findings of cryptosporidiosis in HIV infected patients (adults and children), in the period of 6 years from January 1988 to December 1993 at Bamrasnaradura Hospital in Nonthaburi, Thailand. In this study, Cryptosporidium was found in 22 (8.8%) by detection in stool specimens of 250 HIV infected patients with diarrhea and was found throughout the year. The prevalence rates of cryptosporidiosis in this study among children and adults were 19% and 7.9%, respectively. The common features were chronic diarrhea (84.6%), mostly watery diarrhea and weight loss/malnutrition (100%). A few fecal leukocytes were found in 15.4%.