Table 4: Demographic characteristics and transfusion status of pregnant women attending Wuse, Nyanya and Gwarinpa
District Hospitals
|
Characteristics |
No. Tested |
No. Positive (%) | ||
|
HIV |
HBV |
HCV | ||
|
Occupation | ||||
|
Civil servant |
152 |
9 (5.9)___________ |
___________2(1.3)___________ |
___________6 (3.9)___________ |
|
Students |
3 |
1 (33.3) |
_____________0 (0)_____________ |
0 (0.0) |
|
Housewives |
312 |
12 (3.8) |
7 (2.2)___________ |
0(0.0) |
|
Traders |
33 |
20 (60.6) |
10(30.3) |
2 (6.1) |
|
Marital status | ||||
|
Married |
439 |
38 (8.6) |
13 (3.0) |
___________7 (1.6)___________ |
|
Single |
61 |
4 (6.5) |
6 (9.8) |
1 (1.6) |
|
Blood transfusion status | ||||
|
Transfused |
72 |
1 (1.4) |
____________2 (2.8)____________ |
6 (8.3) |
|
Never transfused |
428 |
41 (9.6) |
17 (4.0) |
____________2 (0.5)____________ |
vmafσf'Heaftfι aviffG&f.Sievoes
Discussion
This study shows the prevalence of HIV, HBV and HCV
infections as well as HIV/HBV and HIV/HCV co-infections
among pregnant women attending three district
hospitals in the FCT, Abuja. The cohort of pregnant
women was chosen for this study not only because of
their sexuality and vulnerability to sexually transmitted
infections but also based on the fact that the three
viruses studied share common route of transmissibility
through heterosexual intercourse.
Over the years, pregnant women cohort has been used
to determine the national prevalence of HIV and syphilis
in Nigeria without concurrently surveying for HBV and
HCV since both HIV viral hepatitis share similar route of
transmission.
In the recent national sentinel survey carried in 2004 (7),
HIV prevalence in the FCT, Abuja was reported as 6.3%,
whereas findings from this study shows a higher
prevalence of 8.4%. Nyanya and Wuse districts recorded
HIV prevalence of 6.7% and 2.0% respectively in the 2005
sentinel report compared to 8.5% and 8.8% respectively
obtained in this study about 2 years later. Similarly, the
high prevalence of viral hepatitis (9.3%) obtained in this
study among pregnant women in Awka, Anambra State,
Nigeria (8) is comparable to 8.4% reported in this study.
Abuja, being an urban city with state of the art
infrastructures has in recent times witnessed a fast
population growth as a result of increasing drift of
people especially civil servants, politicians and
businessmen to the city. This mass drift is bound to
increase the level of human interactions that may
inadvertently affect disease epidemiology.
In this study, the prevalence of HIV and HBV or HCV co-
infections is recorded as 9.5% with 7.1% and 2.4%
specifically co-infected with HBV and HCV respectively.
This report is higher than HIV/HBV and HIV/HCV co-
infections reported in other urban cities such as
Kampala, Uganda (4.9% and 0.6% respectively) and Kigali,
Rwandan (2.4% and 4.9% respectively) (6). In Abidjan,
Cote d’Ivoire, a relatively higher frequency of HIV/HBV
infection as against HIV/HCV co-infection was recorded
(9.0% and 1% respectively) (9). Apart from incessant
conflicts that may compounded the health status of
some of these African cities, it is expected that FCT,
Abuja-Nigeria better resource standing should address
issues that may expose its citizenry to the risk of
acquiring HIV and/or hepatitis infections.
This study also revealed that HIV infection possibly
contributed to the incidence of HBV and HCV infections
in the FCT-Abuja where about 2-fold (7.1% vs 3.8%) and
1.5-fold (2.4% vs 1.6%) increase in HBV and HCV
infections respectively were observed among those
specifically co-infected with HIV. This observation further
implicates heterosexual intercourse in the transmission
of these diseases as earlier reported (10, 11). It is clear
from this study that there is a relatively high frequency
of HIV and HBV or HCV co-infection among this cohort
where about 10% of HIV-positive women in FCT, Abuja
had a co-infection with one hepatitis virus.
Even though the influence of parallel and overlapping
infections with HIV on vertical transmission of HBV and
HCV in pregnant women is not clear, other workers have
speculated hepatitis virus may act as cofactor for HIV
disease progression (2) In this study, infection with the
three viruses was one of the highest among those in the
age bracket 21-25 years. This age group falls among the
sexually active age groups in Nigeria and the result
further confirms the fact that the infections are
prevalent by sexual contact as earlier reported (10).
Assessing occupational risk in acquiring the infections,
this study indicates that women who are traders suffered
the highest rates with HIV, HBV and HCV. This could be
explained by the fact that some of the market women do
travel long distances away from their spouses and may
stay many days before return and may have been
involved in illicit unprotected sex that may lead to sexual
transmitted diseases. It’s not uncommon that Abuja
situated in North Central Nigeria, market women may
http://ojhas.org