Screening of hospital patients for HIV: an experience in a tertiary care hospital of West Bengal.

The clinical consequences of HIV infection encompass a wide spectrum. Early recognition of persons who have HIV will help in early interventions to halt or slow down the progress of HIV disease and to extend fruitful lives.This cross-sectional study was conducted among patients referred to the voluntary counselling and testing centre (VCTC) from various departments in North Bengal Medical College & Hospital Darjeeling West Bengal to find out the pattern of disease/symptoms high risk behaviour (HRB) for HIV and HIV serostatus among the hospital patients. Following the guidelines prescribed by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) anonymous data were collected through interview from 407 individuals. Where specific diagnosis of a disease was obtained it was analysed as mutually exclusive disease; and where specific diagnosis was not obtained mutually exclusive symptoms were considered for analysis.The major diseases/symptoms observed among those patients were tuberculosis in 32.19% STD in 29.97% prolonged unexplained fever in 19.41% of patients. The overall rate of HIV seroreactivity was 17.44%. The HIV serostatus by disease/symptoms showed that 32.91% of patients with prolonged unexplained fever were HIV seroreactive; the rate was 12.90% among patients with skin diseases 12.29% in STD and 12.21% in tuberculosis patients. Overall 270 patients (66.34%) had HRB for HIV/AIDS.The rate of HIV seroreactivity was more among patients who had HRB for HIV/ AIDS and who were referred from indoor departments (23.24%) compared to outdoor departments (13.65%).The patients suffering from prolonged unexplained fever need greater attention for HIV screening. Early detection of HIV positive patients makes Intervention possible at a very early stage and this can slow down/block the progress of HIV disease and as a result can extend fruitful life.