Seropositivity of Human Immunodeficiency Virus among Intending Blood Donors in Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

Aims: Provision of constant and safe blood has been a public health challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa with a high prevalence of transfusion-transmissible infections (TTIs). This study aimed at determining the seroprevalence of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) among prospective blood donors at two Hospitals (government and private-owned) in Rivers State, and also to relate some demographic studies to the screening results.
 Study Design: Cross-sectional study.
 Place and Duration of Study: Two Hospitals (a government-owned and private-owned) in Rivers State, Nigeria, between January 2018 and April 2019.
 Methodology: Two hundred and eighty-two (185 males and 97 females) blood donors were recruited for this study. Sera samples were screened for antibodies to HIV-1 and -2 using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based kits following the manufacturer’s description.
 Results: Of the 282 screened prospective donors (males and females) in this study, the overall prevalence of HIV from both hospitals was 6.0% with a seronegativity of 94.0%. There was a significant relationship (p <0.05) between the overall seroprevalence of HIV concerning gender (p-0.006) all other demographics had no significant association with HIV. Age group 21-30 had the highest prevalence of HIV (53.80%). Donors with tertiary education had the highest prevalence rate (52.90%) of HIV. About marital status, the unmarried donors had higher HIV prevalence (64.70%) when compared with the married donors (35.30%). However, family donors had the highest prevalence of HIV (52.90%). Finally, concerning occupation, students had a higher HIV prevalence (47.10%).
 Conclusion: The seroprevalence of HIV in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria was high. This shows that HIV remains a threat to safe blood transfusion and public health in Nigeria. Strict adherence to selection criteria and algorithm of donor screening is hereby advocated.

Serological Prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus among Febrile Patients Attending a General Hospital in Emohua LGA, Rivers State, Nigeria

“…These most recent findings were consistent with our earlier research in Ibadan, Nigeria (Okonko et al, 2012), which found a higher frequency in people over 40. This observation, however, differs from studies we conducted in Port Harcourt (Abeni et al, 2020) and Ugheli, Delta State, Nigeria (Ogbodo et al, 2015), which found greater prevalences in the age group >26 years.…”

“…The prevalence rate of 5.6% obtained from this study is comparable to the prevalence rate of 5.20% that was reported in Ghana (Acquaye & Tettey-Donkor, 2000). It is also comparable to the 5.70% reported in Jos, Nigeria (Inyama et al, 2005), the 5.0% reported in Port Harcourt, Nigeria (Abeni et al, 2020) and the 6.1% and 6.0% reported by Dammulak et al (2013) in Jos and Buseri et al (2009) in Osogbo, respectively.…”

“…Due to the generally low disease frequency in the research population, and the difference is not statistically significant, it is challenging to identify a specific cause for the somewhat higher female preponderance. Other research from other parts of Nigeria has verified this demographic tendency (Kassim et al, 2012;Okocha et al, 2015;Okoroiwu et al, 2018;Abeni et al, 2020).…”

“…The RNA virus known as the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a member of the Flavivirus family. It primarily spreads through parental contact, though it can also be acquired vertically or through sexual contact (CDC, 1998;Abeni et al, 2020). Compared to the human immunodeficiency virus, HCV is more contagious and requires less contact to infect a person (Te & Jensen, 2001).…”

“…Injection drug use (IDU) is the leading risk factor for infection and the most effective method of hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission (CDC, 2019;Abeni et al, 2020). Rates of HCV infection nearly doubled among women who gave birth to live children between 2009 and 2014 as the number of new HCV infections among individuals of reproductive age (Patrick et al, 2017).…”