The prevalence of intestinal parasitic infection and their association with the t-cell cd4 + counts of hiv/aids infected patients in Kumasi
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Date
2015-04-16
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Abstract
Intestinal parasitic co-infections with HIV, if left untreated appear to speed up the
progression of the HIV infection. However, to date, there have been very few studies
conducted in quite resource limited settings to determine the interaction of intestinal parasitic
co-infection with HIV/AIDS, especially in places where HIV/AIDS management largely
depends on CD4
+
T-lymphocyte cell counts and WHO clinical staging. The study evaluated
the prevalence of intestinal parasite infection in HIV/AIDS infected individuals and its effect
on the immune status, using their T-cell CD4
+
count as a parameter. Stool and blood samples
were collected from 855 HIV infected patients and 100 HIV negative individuals, between
January, 2012 and February, 2013. Each stool sample was preserved in Sodium acetate,
Acetic acid and Formalin solution (SAF) within 30 minutes of collection. This was later
analysed at the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research into tropical medicine (KCCR)
laboratory, using the Formol ethyl acetate concentration technique and Polymerase Chain
Reaction (PCR) in accordance with the standard protocol.
There was a 20.3% prevalence of intestinal parasites among the study individuals. Endolimax
nana recorded the highest prevalence of 6.6%, followed by Entamoeba coli with 4.9% and
Balantidium coli recorded the lowest prevalence of 0.1% for the formol-ethyl aecetate
concentration technique. The PCR technique focused on Entamoeba dispar, Entamoeba
histolytica, Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium parvum. Of the four parasites Entamoeba
dispar recorded the highest prevalence of 10.4% and E. histolytica, recorded the lowest
prevalence of 1.6%. Interestingly, for the intestinal helminths, only hookworm was found
with a prevalence of 0.2%. There was no significant relation between the CD4 T-cell counts
of the study individuals and the intestinal parasites detected, except for C. parvum, which was
recorded in individuals with T-cell CD4
+
counts, below 200 cells/mm
3
.
Description
Thesis submitted to the Department of Clinical Microbiology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Sciences and Technology,