Abstract:
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is one of the most common public health problems in the
world, especially in developing countries. Its rapid progression to AIDS makes difficulty for the
immune cells to fight against infection; hence HIV mainly affects the immune cell, particularly
CD4 and CD8 cells. Viral load and hematological parameters like white blood cell (WBC) are
important monitoring tools to control the rapid progression with antiretroviral therapy (ART).
The objective of this study was to assess the association of viral load, WBC count and associated
risk factors among HIV patients under ART.
The study design was an institutional based cross-sectional study. A total of 70 study
participants were included in the study. Demographic data and 5ml of blood sample were
collected by trained health workers and data was entered to EPI-info version 3.1 and analyzed
with SPSS version 22.chi square and bivariate analysis was applied for continuous variables, Pvalue less than 0.05 was taken as statistical significance.
A total of 70 HIV infected patients who received ART at University of Gondar hospital were
enrolled in the study. The mean ±SD of total WBC, lymphocyte, neutrophil and mixed cell counts
of the participants was 5106 ±2478 cell/µl, 1908 ±962 cell/µl, 2664±1969 cell/µl and 774± 636
cell/µl, respectively. Higher mean viral RNA copies per µl were observed on female patient’s
than male’s p=0.043.No association was demonstrated between risk factors and mean total
leucocytes counts and viral loads.
In conclusion, leucopenia manifestations are common in HIV-infected patient; however, our data
showed that total WBC, lymphocyte, neutrophil and basophile counts as well as associated
factors like alcoholism and cigarette smoking had no significant association with HIV viral load
among HIV-infected patients. Confirmatory longitudinal research with large sample size is
recommended to generalize the related outcomes of this study.
