Dermatologic manifestations among human immunodeficiency virus patients in Morocco and association with immune status

The objective was to determine if the type and number of skin diseases can be clinical indicators of underlying immune status in HIV1 disease by estimating and correlating with the CD4 count and CDC stage.

This was a retrospective cross-sectional descriptive study. All consecutive patients infected with HIV1 followed at the Dermatology Department of Rabat Military Hospital between January 2008 and January 2017 were studied for dermatological manifestations, CD4 count and CDC clinical stage.

A total of 170 patients with 304 dermatological manifestations were included. The most common dermatoses were fold dermatophytic infections (67%), genital warts (43%), herpes zoster (21%), xerosis (21%), and oral candidiasis (12%). The number of dermatologic manifestations was significantly greater in patients with CD4 count less than 200/mm³ or in stage C of the CDC classification. Five types of skin diseases (dermatophyte infections of the folds, genital warts, shingles, oral candidiasis, and seborrheic dermatitis) were significantly associated (P < 0.05) with CD4 count <200/mm³ . Seborrheic dermatitis was the only one skin disease significantly associated with AIDS stage. In multivariate analysis, genital warts (OR = 0.3, 95% CI 0.10-0.92) are independently associated with CD4 count less than 200 CD4/mm³ .

Skin manifestations not only act as markers but also reflect the underlying immune status. Seborrheic dermatitis and genital warts appear to be a marker of immune status, and seborrheic dermatitis appears to be associated with CDC stage C, especially in their chronic and severe forms.