Prevalence of parasitemia and associated immunodeficiency among HIV-malaria co-infected adult patients with highly active antiretroviral therapy

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE@#To investigate the malaria parasitemia, CD4(+) cell counts and some haematological indices among HIV-malaria co-infected adult patients with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).@*METHODS@#A total of 342 adult HIV positive subjects were recruited at the consultant outpatient HIV/AIDS clinic, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria between June 2011 to November 2011. Blood samples were taken for malaria parasite count, CD4(+) cell count and other haematological counts.@*RESULTS@#Out of the 342 adult HIV positive subjects a total of 254 patients (74.3%) were found to have malaria parasitemia. The incidence of malaria parasitemia increased with advancing clinical stage of HIV infection and this was statistically significant (P=0.002). There was no statistical significance when gender was compared with the HIV-malaria status (P >0.05). Of the 254 co-infected patients, 134 (52.8%) had high parasitemia (>1.25 × 10(9)/L). Sixty patients were found to be hyperparasitemic (>2.5 parasites/L). There was a significant association between CD4(+) cell count and having significant parasitemia (P 0.05).@*CONCLUSIONS@#The prevalence of parasitemia is high among the HIV/AIDS infected patients.