Malaria and HIV Co-Infection in Patients Attending a Tertiary Health Facility in Rivers State (Published)
Malaria and HIV infections are co-endemic throughout most of the topical and sub-saharan Africa and both present major threat to public health. A study on the prevalence of HIV Co-infection, Malaria interaction and CD4+ count was carried out on 1000 patients attending a tertiary health facility in Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Rivers State using Cyflow cytometer and Microscopy for parasite detection. Five Hundred HIV positive individual were examined for the presence of malaria Parasite and CD4+ count level, Two Hundred and Fifty individuals were used to determine malaria intensity in relation to CD4+ count level in HIV negative patients. The results showed higher malaria prevalence of 38.5% and prevalence according to age showed a higher prevalence of 45.8% among age group 31-40 and a lower prevalence of 31.5% among age group 41-50 at p =0.029. females had higher rate of infection with 20.1% prevalence than males with 18.4% in relation to sex at P=0.333 (P>0.05). malaria intensity had highest prevalence of 50.8% and a lowest intensity level of 16.7% at P=0.033. Hence the study suggest that malaria and HIV co-infection requires special medical attention. Further studies to elucidate the interaction between Malaria and HIV for better management are recommended.
Keywords: Co-infection, Prevalence, malaria parasite, parasite intensity and Port Harcourt.