A cross-sectional study on the prevalence of HIV and hepatitis B virus co-infection among students of a tertiary institution in Ekiti State, Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

Nigeria aims to eradicate public-health threats such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B virus (HBV) by 2030. However, to achieve the short- and medium-term response target, and end the epidemic by 2030, there is the need to monitor and estimate the population level of HIV and HBV epidemic trends to boost the country's strategic framework's chances of success. Hence, we uncovered the prevalence of HIV and HBV among full-time, newly admitted undergraduate university students in Southwestern Nigeria between 2015 and 2017. In this regard, 4 ml of blood samples was collected from each subject into Ethylene Diamine Tetraacetic Acid (EDTA) bottles and were allowed to stand for one hour. Samples were allowed to separate into plasma and corpuscles on the bench. HIV screening was done using an immunochromatographic method via a highly sensitive kit DETERMINE® (Abbott Diagnostic Division, Netherlands) and were later confirmed using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) Uni-Gold® manufactured by Trinity Biotech Plc, Ireland. HBV screening was carried out using an immunoassay method for the detection of the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). Out of the 4,623 subjects recruited, 2,545 were male while 2,078 were female. The overall prevalence of HIV was found to be 0.13% while that of HBV was 2.23%. Conclusively, although HIV was found to be less prevalent among the study as compared to HBV; however, the higher transmission propensity of HBV necessitates even more urgent efforts to eradicate the infectious diseases.