Dental Medicine & Dentistry

HIV infection is a major health concern in India. India has the third highest number of people living with HIV in the world with 2.1 million Indians accounting for about four out of 10 people infected with the deadly virus in the Asia Pacific region. There are considerable regional variations in the oral manifestations of HIV infection, depending both on the populations studied and on the clinical heterogeneity. The oral manifestations in Asian countries as compared to western countries and other developing nations in Africa and Latin Americas are relatively different. The constraint of resources in Asian countries hinders the possibility of providing an effective health care system. Though many studies have been conducted on oral manifestations in HIV, the research in Asia is currently at a pivotal juncture as the existing research is getting repetitive. Currently, Asian studies predominantly focus on prevalence of oral manifestations and assess their association with parameters of HIV infection, sociodemographic data and deleterious habits. Hence a cross sectional study was undertaken among HIV population in western India, Gujarat with main focus and objectives: 1) Evaluation and diagnostic usefulness of saliva for detection of HIV antibody 2) To calculate CD4 count of HIV positive patients. 2) To evaluate systemic manifestations of HIV positive patients. 3) To detect oro-maxillofacial manifestations in HIV positive patients. 4)To compare and correlate systemic and oro-maxillofacial manifestations of HIV positive patients with the CD4 count. Study population comprised of newly diagnosed 100 confirmed seropostive patients, before starting any antiretroviral therapy, were included. Saliva of HIV positive patients was collected and was tested by ELISA by using special reagents and modifications leading to detection of antibody in saliva. The oral lesions were diagnosed based on clinical manifestation using international criteria and CD4 count was determined within maximum 1 week of oral examination. Oral and systemic manifestations of HIV positive patients were recorded and correlated with CD4 counts. It was found that decrease in CD4 count is associated with a wide range of oral and systemic manifestations which can be used as prognostic marker for immune suppression in AIDS patient. This study can be very useful in epidemiological surveys, diagnosis and management of HIV positive patients.