Prevalence of Oro-Facial Lesions in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infected Women in a Nigerian Teaching Hospital.

Background: Orofacial lesions are among the earliest clinical manifestations of HIV infections.

Objective: This study to investigate the oral lesions seen in HIV positive women with emphasis on the need for diagnosis of oral lesions by all health workers.

Method: A prospective cross-sectional study of HIV positive women attending the HIV/AIDS clinic (PEPFAR) of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin-city, Nigeria. The subjects were investigated for the presence of oral lesions, between the period January and March, 2011. The study was approved by the ethics committee of the hospital and a written informed consent was obtained from each subject that participated in the study. Determination of HIV related oral lesions was carried out clinically using the criteria proposed by the ECC/WHO, 1993. P values ≤ 0.05 were considered significant.

Results: A total of 107 HIV/AIDS infected women attending the HIV/AIDS Clinic were examined. The age ranged from 18 to 50 years with mean age of 36 ± 9.2 years. The age group of 21 to 30 was the most affected (n = 36, 33.6%). Sixty-one subjects (57.0%) presented with oral lesions. The most common observed oral lesion was pseudomembranous candidiasis (n = 37, 37.8%); followed by melanotic pigmentation (n = 11, 11.2%) and xerostomia (n = 11, 11.2%). Group 1 oral lesions accounted for 64.3%, group 2 accounted for 30.6%, while group 3 accounted for 5.1%.

Conclusion: Oro-facial lesions are among the earliest clinical manifestations of HIV infection. These were commonly observed in HIV infected Nigerian women. Oral candidiasis the most common oral lesion observed in the series may therefore be used as a clinical indicator of early immunodeficiency associated with HIV.