Abstract
Background: Human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis B and C viruses are endemic in sub- Saharan African countries including Nigeria. Researchers have studied the burden of co-infection of HIV with hepatitis B and hepatitis C but the risk factors and clinical presentation have not been much addressed especially in children. Methodology: This was a prospective cross sectional study that determined the prevalence, risk factors, clinical features, baseline CD4+ count, CD4+ percentage, and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) of newly diagnosed, HAART na?ve HIV co-infection among children who were managed at a Tertiary Hospital in Ilorin, Nigeria. Result: Of the 60 HIV- infected children recruited, 11.7% had HIV co-infection with HBV or HCV. Children with co-infec- tions (mean age 8.43 ± 2.37 years) were significantly older than their HIV mono-infected counterparts (mean age 5.25 ± 3.96 years) (p = 0.011). There was no significant difference between HIV monoinfection and HIV co-infection with respect to gender (p = 0.758), ethnicity (p = 0.707), religion of parents (p = 0.436), family type (p = 0.184), social class (p = 0.535), previous transfusion (p = 0.053), scarification (p = 0.612), female genital mutilation (p = 0.778), and sharing of clippers (p = 0.806). The mean BMI, immunological staging (p = 0.535), baseline ALT (p = 0.940), and mean baseline CD4+ count (p = 0.928) were comparable. However, the body mass index of HIV co-infec- ted children decreased with age up till age 10 years. Conclusion: There were no risk factors, nor clinical features predictive of co-infection identified in this study. Co-infection did not negatively impact baseline, CD4+ count and ALT.
Highlights
The improvement in access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) has resulted in better survival of people living with HIV/AIDS and has made the obvious burden of chronic complications of HIV infection that manifestation may have been masked by high AIDS-related mortality in the pre-ART era [1]
This was a prospective descriptive cross-sectional study of children age 2 months to 13 years who were HIV infected conducted in University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), a tertiary institution located in Ilorin, in the North Central geopolitical zone of Nigeria
Among children with HIV co-infection, four (57.1%) were males while 42.9% of the co-infected patients were females, HIV co-infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) had no relationship with gender (p = 0.925)
Summary
The improvement in access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) has resulted in better survival of people living with HIV/AIDS and has made the obvious burden of chronic complications of HIV infection that manifestation may have been masked by high AIDS-related mortality in the pre-ART era [1]. The understanding of the shared routes of infection and risk factors of HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) has raised concern of the possibility and effects of co-infection with these viruses [2]-[4]. Other studies report no impact of HBV co-infection on HIV disease progression [9]-[11]. Researchers have studied the burden of co-infection of HIV with hepatitis B and hepatitis C but the risk factors and clinical presentation have not been much addressed especially in children. Methodology: This was a prospective cross sectional study that determined the prevalence, risk factors, clinical features, baseline CD4+ count, CD4+ percentage, and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) of newly diagnosed, HAART naïve HIV co-infection among children who were managed at a Tertiary Hospital in Ilorin, Nigeria. Co-infection did not negatively impact baseline, CD4+ count and ALT
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