RESULTS
Between November 1999 and August 2000, 394
fecal samples from 288 patients with HIV infection
were examined. There were 248 patients (135 patients
had history of diarrhea for less than 3 weeks and 113
patients had chronic diarrhea) in the diarrheal group
and 16 patients who did not have diarrhea and provided
stool samples as a control group. History of
diarrhea could not be verified in 24 patients who
were excluded from the comparison of the distribution
of pathogens detected in each study group. Overall
male: female ratio was 2:1 and the mean age was 32
(range 16 to 64) years. The CD4 count was documented
in 90 patients and the median CD4 count was 32 (range
1-279) cell/mm3 and 93.3% of them had CD4 count
less than 200 cell/mm3.