Comparative study of plasma zinc and selenium levels amongst Human Immunodeficiency Virus(HIV) positive and negative subjects

Abstract

The study was a comparative evaluation of plasma levels of selenium and zinc trace elements amongst HIV-positive and HIV-negative apparently healthy, individuals. The comparative cross sectional study comprised two groups of forty HIV positive and HIV negative subjects respectively who were gotten by consecutive clinic recruitment and random sampling respectively. A structured questionnaire was used to retrieve the sociodemographic data after obtaining informed consent from willing participants. Blood samples were collected aseptically into ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) vacutainer bottles and later analyzed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS). Data analyses were carried out using data analysis software EpiInfo 7 and Microsoft Word Excel 2007. Results were presented as mean ± standard deviation and the student t- test was used to compare means with significance set at P≤0.05. Findings included, instructively, a mean plasma selenium (μg/dl) of 0.0052 ± 0.0024 and 0.0223 ± 0.0054 among HIV negative and positive subjects respectively (p <0.00001). This was in contradistinction to plasma zinc levels where in mean plasma levels(μg/dl) were 122.620 ± 8.571 and 83.35 ± 5.49 for HIV negative and positive subjectsrespectively (p < 0.00001). This may be a pointer to the need for supplementation of certain micronutrients during treatment of HIV infection, as had been noted in some other studies.