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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2015-04-16
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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 .
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Thesis submitted to the Department of Clinical Microbiology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Sciences and Technology,
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