Seroprevalence of Hepatitis C infection in HIV patients using a rapid one-step test strip kit

Abstract

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HIV are transmitted via similar routes making co-infection with these viruses a common event. In addition, HIV infection and related immunosupression in patients with hepatitis C may be associated with more rapid progression of liver disease to cirrhosis, end-stage liver disease and death.

Objective: The study is to determine the seroprevalence of HIV/HCV co-infection rate.

Methods: A cross -sectional study was carried out from January to March 2010 at the HIV clinic of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. About 5 mls of blood sample was collected from each consenting participant. Sera were subjected to HCV rapid kit as recommended by the manufacturer (Dia Spot HCV one step test strip). The descriptive data was given as means ± standard deviation (SD). The chi-squared test was used for analytical assessment. The differences were considered statistically significant when P value obtained < 0.05.

Results: The overall seroprevalence rate of HIV/HCV co- infection was 3.3%.Only 6 of 194 female HIV subjects screened tested positive for HCV (3.1%), while 3 of 73 male subjects tested positive for HCV (4.1%) (P value 0.001). None of the 9 co-infected HIV/HCV participants (both male and female) had CD4 count of 350 and above, 3 had a count of 1-100 cells/ ìl., 4 had 100-200, while 2 had 201-350 .

Conclusion: There  is  the  need  to  include  hepatitis  C  screening routinely in all HIV-infected patients undergoing  pre-HAART evaluation in HIV clinics in order to lower liver-related morbidity and mortality associated with them.

Keywords: Seroprevalence, HIV/HCV co-infection, one step rapid kit