Sero-prevalence study of parasitic infections among HIV positive and Negative patients in Lagos, Nigeria

Background: Diseases caused by opportunistic pathogens are the major clinical signs of HIV infected and AIDS patients with parasitic infection being part of the common causes of morbidity and mortality.Objectives: This was a cross-sectional study to determine the sero prevalence of serum antibodies to three parasitic infections namely Entamoeba histolytica, Schistosoma sp. and Toxoplasma gondii, which are opportunistic infections among HIV/AIDS patients.Methods: One thousand and eighty patients that attended three healthcare institutions in Lagos were recruited for the study through convenience sampling method. Venous blood was collected from the recruited patients and screened for HIV infection as well as the presence of serum antibodies to three parasitic infections. All positive sera samples were confirmed for HIV infection.Result: The results revealed that 65/1080 (6%) of the recruited patients were HIV sero-positive. In addition, 5/65 (7.7%) of the HIV positive patients had E. histolytica co-infection, 1/65 (1.5%) had Schistosoma sp. co-infection while 2/65 (3.1%) had T. gondii co infection. The results also indicated that the proportion of patients with E. histolytica was significantly higher among HIV sero-positive patients than the sero-negative patients (P = 0.031).Conclusion: The study showed the opportunistic potential of the three parasitic infections among HIV/AIDS patients in the study area.Keywords: HIV, AIDS, Seropositive, Seronegative, Toxoplasma gondii, Entamoeba histolytica, Schistosoma haematobiu

Malaria and HIV co-infection and their effect on haemoglobin levels from three healthcare institutions in Lagos, southwest Nigeria

Background: Malaria and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are two major infections with enormous public health consequence. Together, they are endemic in many developing countries with anaemia being the most frequent haematological consequence of the infections.Objective: To determine the prevalence of malaria and HIV co-infection as well as anaemia among selected patients from three health-care institutions in Lagos, Nigeria.Methods: A cross-sectional study of 1080 patients was carried out to  determine the prevalence of malaria and HIV coinfection as well as anaemia. Blood sera from each of the patients were screened for malaria parasites, HIV-1 and HIV-2 using Giemsa stain, Cambridge Biotech  Recombigen HIV-1/HIV-2 rapid device, respectively while haemoglobin estimation was performed using cyanmethemoglobin method.Results: Our data showed that the total number of malaria infected  patients were significantly higher in HIV sero-positive patients 47.7% (31/65) when compared with their HIV sero-negative counterparts 25.8% (262/1015) P = 0.047. The result also revealed that 25.8% (8/31) of the patients co-infected with malaria and HIV had anaemia as compared to 11.1% (29/262) infected with malaria alone. Multivariable logistic  regression analysis showed that patients with dual infection of malaria and HIV were twice likely to be anaemic than those infected with malaria alone [adjusted OR 2.4, 95% CI, 1.3 to 2.7, P = 0.014].Conclusion: Our data indicated a higher prevalence of malaria in HIV infected patients and also revealed that patients coinfected with malaria and HIV were more likely to be anaemic.Keywords: Malaria, malaria and HIV co-infection, anaemia, parasite densit