Association between the occurrence of herpes zoster and various type of cellular immunity disorders in HIV/AIDS patients

Lali Sharvadze, Tengiz Tsertsvadze, Nino Gochitashvili

Infectious Diseases, AIDS & Clinical Immunology Research Center, Tbilisi, Georgia

We have studied the association between the occurrence of Herpes Zoster and various type/severity of cellular immunity disorders in immunocompromised HIV/AIDS patients. Besides we assessed the relationship between disease (Herpes Zoster) severity, disease duration, associated postherpetic neuralgia and CD4 counts. A total of randomly selected 154 adult, antiretroviral treatment naive HIV infected patients were enrolled in the study. These 154 HIV patients were divided into 3 groups according the range of CD4+ T cell count. 51 HIV patients (40 male, 11 female) with CD4+T cell count <200/mm³ (1st group), 49 HIV patients (41 male and 8 female) with CD4+T cell count 200-500/mm³ (2nd group) and 54 HIV patients (42 male and 12 female) with CD4+T cell count >500/mm³ (3rd group). We found that incidence of Herpes Zoster in immunocompromised HIV/AIDS patients significantly was associated with decrease rate of cellular immunity. Direct correlation between incidence and decreased CD4+ counts revealed. The disease severity and duration was associated with immunodeficiency severity. Frequency of postherpetic neuralgia - the most devastative complication of herpes Zoster was also associated with decrease of CD4+ count.

Keywords:  herpes zoster, CD+T cell, HIV/AIDS, cellular immunity