Jpn. J. Infect. Dis., 56, 187-192, 2003

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Original Article

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections in Hospital Kuala Lumpur

Veeranoot Nissapatorn*, Christopher Lee¹, Quek Kia Fatt² and Khairul Anuar Abdullah

Department of Parasitology and ²Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Malaya Medical Centre, 50603 Kuala Lumpur and
¹Department of Medicine, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, 50586 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

(Received May 2, 2003. Accepted October 16, 2003)

*Corresponding author: Mailing address: Department of Parasitology, University of Malaya Medical Centre, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Tel: +603-79676618, Fax: +603-79674754, E-mail: nissapat@hotmail.com

SUMMARY: We retrospectively reviewed 419 HIV/AIDS patients in Hospital Kuala Lumpur from 1994 to 2001. In the male group, the age range was 20 - 74, with a mean age 37 years, while in the female group it was 17 - 63, with a mean age of 33 years. With regard to age group, it was found that the preponderant age group was 25 - 34 years. The majority of male subjects were Chinese (52.5%), single (56.3%), and unemployed (55.1%), whereas the females were Malay (42.3%), married (79.5%), and non-laborer (64.1%). Also, both groups resided in Kuala Lumpur and had heterosexual contact as the leading cause of HIV transmission. More than half of the patients had CD4 cell counts of <200 cells/cumm. We found that the acquisition of HIV infection via intravenous drug use (IDU) was directly related to the incidence of tuberculosis infection (P < 0.05). Further analysis showed HIV-related tuberculosis with IDU was also dependently correlated with occupational status (unemployed) (P < 0.05). The four main AIDS-defining diseases include tuberculosis (48%), Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (13%), toxoplasmic encephalitis (11%), and cryptococcal meningitis (7%); in addition, 53% of these patients were found to have CD4 cell counts of less than 200 cells/cumm at the time of diagnosis.

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