Abstract

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Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major disease burden on the world and man is the only known natural host of HCV. HCV infection depends on age, sex, and immune-competence at the time of infection. In most immuno-competent adults, 75% to 85% develop chronic HCV infection. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) increases the pathological effect of HCV infection and potentiates the re activation of latent hepatitis infections due tolowered immunity. About 10% of HIV-positive individuals are HCV antibody carriers. The present study aimed at determines the HCV/HIV co-infection among patients attending Antiretroviral clinic of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, Nigeria. One hundred and eighty (180)known HIV-positive are screened for the presence of HCV infection using HCV antibody Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) kit according to the manufacturer’s instructions for qualitative detection in plasma. Of the 180 subject screened for HCV, an overall prevalence of 5 (2.8%) were found. Subject aged 41 – 50 years had the highest seroprevalence (5.6%), followed by those aged 0 – 20 years (4.4%) and least seroprevalence was among those aged 21 – 30 and >50 years (0.0%). The highest seroprevalence was obtained among the subject with CD4 cell count of 0 – 200cell/mm3 and those on antiretroviral therapy for about 1 – 5 years. The finding of this study suggested that all HIV-positive should be routinely screened for HCV since about 10% of HIV-positive are HCV carriers and a decline in CD4+ cell counts will increase the chance of developing chronic HCV infection.

Keywords: Hepatitis C virus, HIV-positive, ELISA, Co-infection, Liver