HIV is associated with a wide variety of haematological changes resulting from marrow defects, immune cytopenias as well as opportunistic infections. The study was conducted to evaluate haematological changes in HIV patients attending Fevers Clinic at the Central Regional Hospital, Cape Coast, Ghana. A case-control study design was used to recruit 150 HIV seropositive patients on antiretroviral treatment (ART) and 50 HIV seronegative control patients. Blood was sampled from both infected and controls for Full Blood Count (FBC) analysis using Cell Dyn 1800 Automated Analyzer, Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) using the Westergren method and CD4 count using the Becton Dickinson (BD) FASCount analyzer. HIV+ patients have FBC parameters ranging from a high of 80% to a low of about 25% whilst control patients have normal FBC parameters ranging from a least of 80% and above. All control patients had normal ESR values whilst 91(65.8%) of HIV+ patients have abnormally high ESR values. Paired mean double-tailed comparison showed that Haemoglobin level (Hb), Red Blood Cell count (RBC), Haematocrit (HCT), Mean Cell Volume (MCV), Mean Cell Haemoglobin (MCH), White Blood Cell (WBC), Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin Concentration (MCHC), Neutrophil and CD4 count were significantly reduced while ESR values of HIV+ subjects were significantly higher than those of control subjects (P<0.05). Platelet and Leukocytes were however higher in control patients than HIV+ patients but insignificant (P>0.05). This work provide further evidence on the profound changes in haematological profile of HIV+ patients which factor must be considered in their treatment to ensure total well-being.
