Prevalence and Patterns of Cervical Cytological Lesions among HIV-Positive Women in Machakos County Hospital Kenya

Background: Cervical cancer remains to be a major threat to health among women globally with highest incidences in the developing countries. Studies have showed that HIV-positive women are at higher risk of HPV infection which is the causative agent of cervical cancer. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of cervical cytological lesions among HIV infected women in Machakos county hospital Kenya.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Machakos County Hospital Comprehensive Care Centre and Machakos Cancer Care and Research Centre, between August 2020 and December 2020.

Methodology: A total of 400 women who were HIV-positive and attending the comprehensive care center at the facility were enrolled in this study. Cytological samples obtained using a cytobrush were processed using manual liquid based cytology technique. All smears were stained using the Papanicolaou staining method and examined microscopically for cervical cytological lesions. Chi-square test was performed to evaluate the association between cervical cytological lesions and the demographic variables.

Results: A total of 400 participants were enrolled in this study. 15 had unsatisfactory smears and thus excluded from analysis. The prevalence of cervical cytological lesions in this study was 30 out of 385 (7.8%). Of the cervical cytological lesions observed, Atypical Squamous Cells of Undetermined Significance (ASCUS) had the highest number of cases 9 (30%) while Atypical Squamous Cells cannot exclude High grade (ASC-H) had the least number of cases 2 (6.6%). Of all the demographic variables studied, none was found to have any statistical significant association with cervical cytological lesions.

Conclusion: The prevalence of cervical cytological lesions among HIV-positive women in this study was 7.8%. There was no statistical significance association between any of the demographic variables studied and cervical cytological lesions.