Imphal, August 19: Despite the assurance of the reliability given by the Microbiology Department of JN Hospital, Porompat on the result of the CD4 count conducted on its FACS Calibur machine, some of the HIV positive people have expressed confusion and apprehension over the validity of the results of the CD4 count.

It is said that a wide variation in the results of the CD4 count conducted on the FACS Calibur machine of the hospital and the FACS SCAN machine, which is of the same standard installed at Care Foundation have been detected.

When the result of the test conducted by the FACS Calibur machine of the hospital indicated low CD4 count, the test result of the same person conducted by the FACS SCAN machine of Care Foundation indicated high CD4 count, thus causing confusion in the minds of many a people living with HIV.

Nonetheless, the Microbiology Department of the Hospital has assured that there has been no instance of confusion over the result of the CD4 count conducted on its FACS Calibur machine nor any of the physicians have received any complaint, either written or verbally, from any quarters in this regard.

However, a doctor who has been directly dealing with the issue of HIV/AIDS in JN Hospital said that before the installation of the FACS Calibur machine, there was no contention on the results of the CD4 count conducted by FACS Counter machine of the hospital.

The doctor pointed out that when the CD4 count of a patient was shown as only 3 at the time of test conducted by the FACS Calibur, the re-test conducted by the FACS Scan machine of the Care Foundation indicated that the CD4 count of the patient was 616 .

Similarly, when the CD4 count of another patient conducted on the FACS Calibur was shown as 129, it was pointed out as 346 when conducted at the machine of the Care Foundation.

The CD4 count of yet another patient conducted on FACS Calibur was shown as 201 while the result of the test conducted at Care Foundation noted it as 665.In the light of such wide variation in the result of the CD4 count, a situation has come when a persons with HIV, even if he/she has undergone CD4 count test at JN Hospital, cannot be assured until the test is reconducted elsewhere despite the prospects of shelling out more money.

Once a person has been confirmed as HIV positive, the first and the foremost thing to be done is to find out his or her CD4 count.

The types of treatment to be undertaken is purely based on the result of the CD4 count of the person.

Lower the CD4 count of the person, the chances of getting Opportunistic Infection (OI) higher and vice-versa.

Thus the normal well-being of the positive person and the mental state of mind depend largely on the results of the CD4 count.

In accordance with NACO guideline, ART treatment can be provided to the HIV positive persons only if his/her CD4 count is within 200.Once on ART, the person has to continue the treatment without any interruption.

Moreover, a person on ART treatment needs to check his CD4 count after every six months.

So far, there are in all 4617 patients on ART treatment in JN Hospital and 1847 patients who are waiting to undergo the treatment.

According to a doctor of the Medicine Department of JN Hospital, the confusion over the results of the CD4 count among the patients should not be taken lightly by the authorities concerned.

The facility for CD4 count to the HIV positive patients is being provided free of cost in the Government Hospital.

In case of conducting the test at a private clinic, a patient has to spend atleast Rs 300 to 700 per test.

An official of the Microbiology Department of JN Hospital disclosed that following the apprehension of the patients, the Department has compared the results of the CD4 count test conducted on four different patients by the FACS Calibur of the Hospital as well as by the FACS SCAN machine of the Care Foundation.

While informing that a slight variation, for instance when the CD4 count of the patient conducted at the hospital was 518, it was found to be 476 at Care Foundation, when the CD4 count was recorded as 285 at JN Hospital it was recorded as 354 at Care Foundation, when it was recorded 103 at JN Hospital, the CD4 count was found out to be 107 at Care Foundation and when it was 54 at the Hospital, at Care Foundation the CD4 count was recorded as 42 only, the official maintained that the CD4 count of the patients depend on the food and nutritional habit, lifestyle and the mental state at the time of conducting the test.

Asserting that internal quality control, inter laboratory quality control and external quality control of the machine being carried out after every week has not detected any defect, the Department has appealed to the people not to have any confusion over the results of the CD4 count conducted by its machine.

It may be recalled here that the FACS Calibur machine of the hospital was installed in first week of March this year.

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