with hiv why the study people with hiv infection are living longer and better due to improved access to antiretroviral therapy though neurological opportunistic infections are on decline non opportunistic conditions like hiv associated neurocognitive impairment hand remain prevalent it has been shown that the impaired cognitive performance can affect routine activities employment adherence to treatment and quality of life the studies have been conducted globally but the data on the prevalence and cofactors associated with hand available from systematically conducted research in india is scanty study details this is the first comprehensive study in india which has additionally evaluated viral and host factors associated with neurocognitive impairments in people with hivpunebased national aids research institute nari along with hiv neurobehavioral research programme at the university of california san diegothe study was initiated in september 2008 and completed recently in may 2013 the study was conducted in adult population above 18 years of agethe data was collected in three groups 1 hiv infected individuals with advanced disease cd4 count less than 200 cellscmm number of patients were 125 2 hiv infected individuals with cd4 count between 350550 cellscmm number of patients were 128 and 3 hiv uninfected individuals number of patients were 287 all participants received a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation neuromedical assessment and laboratory evaluationthe neuropsychological test battery that was used in this study was developed at hiv neurobehavioral research center hnrc san diego and standardized in indian population prior to useafter baseline evaluations all individuals with cd4 count less than 200 cellsmm3 received art treatment as per the national guidelines and nearly 50 hiv individuals with cd4 count between 350 and 550 cellsmm3 were given immediate antiretroviral treatment they were co enrolled from a ongoing clinical trial the participants were followed every year for neuropsychological evaluation the cognitive battery included tests in the domain of fluency speed of information processing attention executive functioninglearning memory and motor performance the outcome on art was evaluated based on the performance in these tests in the offing indian council of medical research has organised national seminar on neuroaids in india current findings and future directions at national aids research institute nari in pune on september 24 and september 25 source national aids research institute nari pune key findings of nari study a study has indicated higher baseline prevalence 47 of neuro cognitive impairment in people with advanced hiv infection who are yet to be put on treatment the most common subtype clade c which causes hiv infection in india has been found to affect nervous system less severely than subtypes like subtype b virus prevalent in europe america