Skin disorders in HIV-infected patients from West Java

to describe the spectrum of HIV-related skin disorders as well as their prevalence and relation to CD4-cell counts among HIV-seropositive patients from West Java, Indonesia.

all HIV-positive patients presenting in 2008 at the HIV-clinic, Hasan Sadikin Hospital, were included in a cross-sectional study. Patients who had a skin complaint were examined by a dermatologist. Skin diseases were classified based on ICD 10.

among 843 patients, 121 (14.4%) had a skin complaint, consisting of skin manifestations (73.3%), drug eruptions (30.5%), and sexually transmitted infections (15.7%), some of them had more than one diseases. The most common skin manifestations were drug eruptions, pruritic papular eruptions, seborrhoeic dermatitis, herpes zoster, dermatophytosis, and bacterial skin infections. Among patients who started nevirapine, 6.4% (95%CI: 3.9% - 8.9%) developed any kind of drug eruption, and 1.4% (95%CI 0.2%-2.6%) developed a severe drug eruption. No cases of Kaposi sarcoma, penicilliosis, eosinophilic folliculitis were seen, however one case of histoplasmosis was diagnosed.

this is the first report describing the prevalence and characteristic of skin manifestation in HIV-positive in Indonesia. Indonesian physicians should be alert about HIV when patient presents with certain skin manifestations. The rate of severe drug eruptions following treatment with nevirapine is a cause of concern that needs further study.