Human Immunodeficiency Virus And Hepatitis C Virus Co-Infection Among Children In An Antiretroviral Therapy Programme In Benue,

Background; Studies on HIV-Hepatitis C viral (HCV) co-infections in Nigeria have been done essentially among adult and pregnant women with a few in pediatric population. The study aims at documenting the burden and the characteristics of HIVHCV co-infections in a cohort of Nigerian children. Methods; A retrospective study among treatment-naive HIV-infected children attending pediatric clinic of the AIDS PREVENTION INITIATIVE IN NIGERIA Plus/Harvard PEPFAR program of the Federal Medical Centre, Makurdi, between June 2008 and June 2012. Inclusion criteria included all subjects who were screened and got results for viral hepatitis B (HBV) and C. Results; The age range of the included 395 subjects was 16 months to 15 years with a mean age of 7.53±4.23 years including 205 males and 190 females. Nine subjects (2.3%) tested positive for HCV. Thirty one subjects (7.8%) were positive for HBV. No subject was HIV-HBV-HCV triply infected. Significantly more male subjects were HIV-HCV co-infected compared to female subjects, p value of 0.04. Other baseline characteristics including age, route of HIV acquisition and WHO Clinical stage did not significantly affect HIV-HCV co-infection. Conclusion; This study confirms a low seroprevalence of HCV among our HIV-infected children.