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Serum ferritin has long been known as an acute phase reactant during inflammation. It works as an oxidative stress marker in the human body besides its main role in the storage of intracellular iron. Increase of serum ferritin levels (SFL)  has been reported found in HIV patients, particularly those with opportunistic infections. It still remains unclear though whether the increase in the SFL causes, or just the opposite, being the cause, to the progressivity of the disease itself and to the decrease in immunological status of the patients. The purpose of this study was to find association between the SFL and the progressivity of the HIV disease based on the immunological status and clinical staging in HIV patients.

A retrospective study on 91 patients was carried out at the Haji Adam Malik General  Hospital. All of the study population were HIV positive inpatients admitted to the hospital from January to December 2016. The data were all obtained from the patients medical records including sociodemography, complete blood count, ferritin serum, CD4+ counts and other selected laboratory assays. The WHO Clinical Staging System was used to assess the clinical staging of the HIV patients. There is an inverse relationship found  between the serum ferritin levels with the immunological status of the HIV patients (r = -0,213) based on their CD4+ count. Moreover, there was no association proven statistically in this study between the serum ferritin levels with the clinical staging of the HIV patients (p= 0,953). The elevated SFL is a feature found in HIV-diagnosed patients with low CD4+ count and it affects the progressivity of the disease.