Immunoglobulin levels cannot replace CD4+ cell count as markers in HIV care

Background: HIV infection predisposes to AIDS by depleting the immunity of the host. The cellular and humoral immune response markers that can be used to monitor the progress of the disease and treatment are the CD4+ cells and immunoglobulins respectively. Aim: This work was carried out to determine immunoglobulin levels and CD4+ cell count in HIV negative individuals, HIV positive subjects on HAART and treatment naïve HIV positive subjects to provide useful information for effective management of HIV infection. Methods: Thirty participants (Female-11; Male-19; aged 18- 60 years ) were recruited for each of the groups: HIV infected individuals on HAART, HIV- infected individuals not yet on treatment and HIV- negative adults; to give cumulative number of participants of 90. Cyflometry method was used for CD4 count using Partec CD4 machine, plasma IgA, IgG and IgM were measured by ELISA while HIV tests were carried out using immunochromatographic and ELISA assays. Results: The participants were adults in the age range of 18 to 60 years and majority in terms of gender were male (63.3%) in all the groups. Data collected through questionnaire revealed that majority of the participants (>50%) in each group had education above secondary school level with 83.3% taking balance diet regularly. In every group as well, some participants (>40%) take both multivitamin supplements and herbal concoction. There was no significant difference in the plasma value of IgA, IgG and IgM in HIV negative, HIV positive participants on HAART and treatment naive participants using ANOVA (p>0.05). However, there was a significantly higher CD4+ Cell Count in HIV Negative participants compared with HIV Positive participants on HAART and treatment naïve participants(p<0.05). Conclusion: There was no significant difference in plasma immunoglobulins A, G and M in HIV positive patients on HAART, HIV treatment naïve and HIV negative control while CD4+ T-cells count was significantly higher in HIV negative participants compared with HIV positive individuals

Prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen, hepatitis C and Human Immunodeficiency Virus antibodies in a population of students of tertiary institution in Nigeria

Objective: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus, and hepatitis C viruses (HCV) are major causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. They are also among the commonest transfusiontransmissible infectious agents. Students of higher institutions are often used as voluntary unpaid donors by many hospitals in Nigeria. In this study, the prevalence of HIV and HCV and HBsAg is determined in a population of students attending Ladoke Akintola University of Technology in south west Nigeria, to provide background information on the burden of these infections in this population. Materials and Methods: Serum samples were obtained from students of the Pre-degree Science programme of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho and tested for antibodies to HIV, HCV and HBsAg using the ELISA procedure. Results: The prevalence rates of antibodies to HIV and HCV in the student population were 0% and 4.8%, respectively and that of HBsAg was 9.5%. Conclusion: The findings of this study which showed that the prevalence of antibodies to HIV and of HBsAg in this group of students is somewhat similar to those carried out in similar populations. This strongly suggests that the viral burden amongst this population of students is similar and that probably similar factors (demographic) are responsible for maintaining this level of viral load. Further studies would be needed to elucidate the reasons why this is the case. Also it would be necessary to reemphasize the methods of prevention of transmission of these viruses, and to ensure their implementation in order to reduce the viral levels and therefore avoid the long term sequalae.Key words: Transfusion, Infection, Blood Donatio