Abstract:
AIMS:To study the various clinical presentations of herpes zoster
and to find out the proportion of HIV positivity in these patients.
METHODS: A time bound study was conducted from Nov 2004 to
Oct 2005. All clinically diagnosed cases of herpes zoster were tested
for HIV infection with ELISA and confirmed by Tridot and Coomb
AID. RESULTS: Total numbers of 90 zoster cases were recorded.
Mean duration of pre herpetic neuralgia was 2.134 (standard
deviation=1.424, F=8.951, P<0.001). The thoracic dermatome
(46.66%) was most commonly involved, followed by the cranial nerves
(18.88%), lumbar (14.44%), cervical (13.33%) and sacral (6.66%)
nerves. A substantial proportion, 34 (37.77%) out of 90 cases, were
found to be HIV positive. Of these, 64.7 percent of the HIV
seropositive herpes zoster patients belonged to the age group of 21-40
years. Out of 39 who had a risk of exposure to STDs and whose ages
were less than 50 years, 31 (79.48%) tested positive for HIV infection.
CONCLUSION: The occurrence of zoster in the young age group in
patients who report a history of risk factors for HIV, may need testing.
Herpes zoster serves as a clinical indicator of HIV seropositivity and
one of the earliest manifestations.
