Seroprevalence of hepatitis B surface antigenemia among HIV-infected individuals in Aba, South Eastern, Nigeria

Abstract

Nigeria has remained a hyper-endemic area for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, despite the existence of a safe and effective vaccine, with an estimated 12% of the total population being chronic carriers. Highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) has improved survival of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients by reducing liver-associated morbidities and mortalities in such patients. There is no data on the sero-prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection in our centre. Three hundred and six consecutively recruited HIV-infected individuals comprising 105 males and 201 females were screened for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) seroprevalence using ELISA test kits. Bio-data collated were analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS, version 20). Level significance was taken as P<0.05. Thirty of the patients tested positive for HBsAg giving an overall prevalence rate of 9.80%. Co-infection rate among the males was higher (12.40%) than in females (9.50%) but the difference is not statistically significant (P-value >0.05). The prevalence of HBsAg among the patients with a CD4 count greater than 350 was 40% representing the percentage of HIV patients with HBV who may not be treated with HAART. In conclusion, HBV infection is relatively common in HIV infected individuals in our environment, necessitating routine screening of all such individuals.