Jeremiah Theresa A, Frank-Peterside Nkechi, Jeremiah Zaccheaus A
Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Rivers State University of Science & Technology, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
East Afr J Public Health. 2009 Apr;6(1):17-21. doi: 10.4314/eajph.v6i1.45807.
Most published reports on HIV prevalence are centered on adults of sexually active age and antenatal mothers with little or no regard to infants and children.
A total of one thousand (1000) children aged 1 to less than 15 years attending the various clinics at the Braithwait Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMSH), Port Harcourt were recruited into the study. Blood samples (3 millilitres of blood) were collected into a five millilitres syringe and the serum was used for serological testing of antibodies to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and CD4 cell counts from EDTA blood. The WHO HIV testing strategy III was adopted for defining the HIV status. The CD4 cell count was estimated using the Dynamal Quant Kit (Dynal Biotechn, ASA, Oslo, Norway).
The overall HIV prevalence rate in this study was 23.2%. The distribution of HIV prevalence among different age group revealed a high prevalence rate among the under fives (24.1% for males and 26.4% for females). There was a significant negative correlation between age and HIV status of children (r = -0.94, P <0.01). The mean CD4 count of the infected children was 647.25 +/- 340.1 (95% CI 603.3 - 691.1). Logistic regression analysis showed that both age and sex exert an influence of the CD4 count only in the under fives (0 - <5 yrs). 10.3% of the children were immuno compromised with CD4 count below 200 cells, 27.9% fell into the moderate category while 61.8% had normal CD4 counts of 500 cells and above.
The seroprevalence of HIV among infants and children is high in this part of the world and this call for urgent intervention through voluntary counseling of antenatal mothers and proper monitoring in order to reduce the paediatric HIV prevalence.
大多数已发表的关于艾滋病毒流行率的报告都集中在性活跃年龄的成年人和产前母亲身上，很少或根本没有关注婴儿和儿童。
从哈科特港布雷斯韦特纪念专科医院（BMSH）各诊所招募了总共1000名年龄在1至15岁以下的儿童参与研究。将3毫升血液样本采集到5毫升注射器中，血清用于人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）抗体的血清学检测以及从乙二胺四乙酸（EDTA）抗凝血中进行CD4细胞计数。采用世界卫生组织艾滋病毒检测策略III来确定艾滋病毒感染状况。使用Dynamal Quant试剂盒（挪威奥斯陆Dynal Biotechn公司）估算CD4细胞计数。
本研究中艾滋病毒总体流行率为23.2%。不同年龄组之间艾滋病毒流行率分布显示，五岁以下儿童中流行率较高（男性为24.1%，女性为26.4%）。儿童年龄与艾滋病毒感染状况之间存在显著负相关（r = -0.94，P <0.01）。受感染儿童的平均CD4细胞计数为647.25 +/- 340.1（95%置信区间603.3 - 691.1）。逻辑回归分析表明，年龄和性别仅对五岁以下儿童（0 - <5岁）的CD4细胞计数有影响。10.3%的儿童免疫功能受损，CD4细胞计数低于200个细胞，27.9%属于中等类别，而61.8%的儿童CD4细胞计数正常，为500个细胞及以上。
在世界这一地区，婴儿和儿童中艾滋病毒血清流行率较高，这需要通过对产前母亲进行自愿咨询和适当监测来进行紧急干预，以降低儿童艾滋病毒流行率。
