INCIDENCE OF HUMAN RHINOVIRUS COINFECTION WITH STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS AMONG HIV PATIENTS SUFFERING FROM FLU LIKE ILLNESS

Background: Influenza and influenza like illness (ILI) is a common respiratory illness among HIV patients. ILI is caused by various respiratory viruses and bacteria other than influenza virus. The symptoms of ILI recover within a few days, but in HIV patients ILI with opportunistic coinfections may lead to serious complications and hospitalization. Objective: To determine the incidence of human rhinovirus (HRV) coinfection with Staphylococcus aureus among HIV patients suffering from flu like illness. Materials and Methods: In this study 92 throat swab samples of flu suspected HIV patients were collected from Department of Immunology, SGPGIMS, Lucknow and ART Centre, RMLIMS, Lucknow, during 2014 – 2015. Samples were cultured on mannitol salt agar (MSA) plates, Staphylococcus aureus were confirmed by the biochemical characterization. The confirmation of HRV was done by RT-PCR. HeLa cell lines were used for isolation of human rhinovirus. Results: The prevalence of HRV was found 17 (18.5%), while S. aureus were isolated from 40 (43.5%) samples.  Coinfection of S. aureus was found in 11 HRV positive samples (64.7%), among them 5 (45.5%) isolates were found high colonizer. Only 2 HRV confirmed samples (11.8%) were found cell culture positive on HeLa cell lines. The significant enhancement in clinical symptoms such as coughing, sore throat and sputum was found during coinfection (P <0.05). Conclusion: The high prevalence of HRV is found in flu suspected HIV patients in this region. S. aureus coinfection is found higher during HRV infection with higher rate of colonization. Respiratory complications were observed significantly increased during coinfection