The prevalence of malaria among HIV seropositive individuals and the impact of the co- infection on their hemoglobin levels
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Date
2015-12-01
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BioMed Central
Abstract
Background: Malaria and HIV/AIDS are the two most common infections in sub-Sahara Africa. There are hypotheses
and study reports on the possible association between these two infections, hence the prevalence and outcome of
their co-infection in an endemic population will be important in defining healthcare strategies. A cross sectional
study was carried out at the Holy Family Hospital in Techiman, Ghana, between November 2011 and January 2012,
to determine the prevalence of malaria among HIV sero-positive patients and its impact on hemoglobin levels.
Method: A total of 400 HIV sero-positive participants (292 females and 108 males) aged between 1 and 73 years
were randomly sampled for the study. A questionnaire was administered and 2 ml of venous blood samples were
drawn for malaria parasites detection, CD4 count and haemoglobin level estimations.
Results: Malaria parasites were detected in 47 (11.75%) of the participants. There was no statistically significant
difference between the malaria prevalence rate of females (12.1%) and males (10.2%) P = 0.6047. An overall anaemia
prevalence of 67% was observed. Among participants with malaria the anaemia prevalence was 93.6%. The CD4 cell
count of all the participants ranged between 3 and 1604 cells/μl with a mean of 386.2 (±274.3) cells/μl. Participants
with malaria had CD4 cell count ranged 3 and 512 Cells/μl with the mean being 186.33 (±133.49) Cells/μl. Out of
377 participants (all above 15 years) interviewed on knowledge of malaria transmission and prevention, 87.0% had
knowledge on transmission but only 8.5% use in bed nets.
Conclusion: It was revealed that almost all the patients with malaria infection were anemic.
Description
An article published by BioMed Central and also available at DOI 10.1186/s12941-015-0064-6
Keywords
HIV/AIDS, CD4 cells, Malaria co-infection, Anaemia, Anti-retroviral
Citation
Tay et al. Annals of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials (2015) 14:10. The prevalence of malaria among HIV seropositive individuals and the impact of the co- infection on their hemoglobin levels. DOI 10.1186/s12941-015-0064-6