Haematologic features of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in adult Zimbabweans

Abstract

Objective: To describe the haematologic features of the HIV infection in adult Zimbabweans and compare the features in the different clinical stages of the disease.

Design: Descriptive cross sectional study.

Setting: Parirenyatwa Hospital, a tertiary and referral medical centre in Harare, and the blood donor clinics of the Blood Transfusion Service in Harare.

Subjects: Patients attending HIV outpatients clinics or receiving inpatient care at Parirenyatwa Hospital and asymptomatic persons donating blood at the BTS Harare.

Main outcome measures: Full blood counts and bone marrow cell counts and morphology.

Results: Blood cytopenia was found in 47.5% of adults with HIV infection. The most frequent abnormalities were lymphopenia (31.5%); anaemia (30.8%); neutropenia (29.6%); thrombocytopenia (24.7%); eosinophilia (23.5%) and leucopenia (11.7%). Frequency of anaemia in the AIDS and symptomatic groups (43.4% and 24.5% respectively) was greater than in the carriers (6.7%), while the frequency of other cytopenias and of eosinophilia was about the same in all groups. There was also a general lack of association between the severity of haematologic abnormalities and the clinical stage of the disease.

Conclusion: Severe haematologic changes occur frequently in HIV infection and AIDS but routine full blood count may not be helpful in the monitoring of the disease or the prediction of onset of AIDS.