Journal of Preventive Medicine & Infectious Diseases

Abstract

Background: Infection with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is responsible for the terminal stage of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which was a latent infection until the introduction of antiretro viral treatment. The progression to chronicity of this infection leads to chronic inflam-mation that facilitates the occurrence of opportunistic infections. Cameroon is a country located in sub-Saharan Africa, area En demic to the viral infection, there is very little data on the Herpes Virus Infections Epidemiology, Especially Associated with HIV Infection with HIV-positive people born HIV positive with an undetectable viral load. Objective: The aim of our study was to determine the seroprevalence of HBs antigen and Anti-HCV antibodies in HIV-positive children born HIV posi-tive in Yaoundé.

Methods: It was a prospective cross-sectional study, conducted at the Yaounde University Teaching Hospital (YUTH) after 12 months of follow up, in children living with HIV born HIV positive, on antiretro-viral treat ment and whose medical file was complete and available within the Approved treatment Center (ATC). IgG an tibodies against HCV (Anti-HCV antibody) and HBs antigen (HBs Ag) were qualitatively determined by Rapid Diagnostic Tests, for the detection of these pathogens. Data en-try and analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0, the Fischer exact, the Khi-square and the Mann–Whitney tests. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

Results: A total of 74 participants were enrolled in the study with a female predominance of 68.92% (n=51/74). The average age of our series was 9.05±5.09 years with a range of 3 to 19 years, and most participants was under 10 years old (56.76%, n=42/74). HBsAg and anti-HCV Ab the sero-prevalence were 18.92% and 14.2 %. Other parameters such as sex, age, stage of disease, smoking and alcohol consumption were not associated with the seropositivity of these viruses.

Conclusion: It was strong to note a circulation of those viruses in HIV infected patients, mainly in bi and tri co-infections.