Toxoplasmosis Among HIV Patients and Healthy Volunteers in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

Toxoplasmosis is a serious infection, especially among the immune-compromised people such as HIV/AIDS patients.

This study assessed the seroprevalence and associated risk factors of toxoplasmosis among HIV patients and healthy volunteers or immuno-competent persons (IP) in Port Harcourt.

A total of 400 (200 per group) randomly-selected sera were tested for IgG and IgM T. gondii antibodies using ELISA technique. CD4 cell counts were also determined. Demographic and risk factors were determined using a well-structured questionnaire.

Overall seroprevalence for HIV and IP using IgG and IgM toxoplasma antibodies was 36.0%, 21.5%, and 1.5%, 7.0%, respectively. The age group f 40 years and above had the highest seroprevalence of 25.3% among the HIV positive persons, while the age groups 25 - 29 years had the highest seroprevalence of 20.0% among the IP. Traders’ positive with HIV had the highest seroprevalence of 30.0% and 0.9% for IgG and IgM toxoplasma antibodies, respectively. HIV subjects with a secondary education showed the highest seroprevalence of 20.0%. More HIV positive females were infected with toxoplasmosis 18.5%. In all, 6.7% (P > 0.05) of the seropositive patients had CD4 cell counts of less than 200 cells/µL, indicating no correlation between seroprevalence and CD4 cell counts of HIV/AIDS patients. Risk factors in this study included the history of living with pets, farming and eating improperly-washed fruits and vegetables.

Seroprevalence of Toxoplasmosis was high among HIV patients in Port Harcourt. It is suggested that the institutions included the Toxoplasmosis test as one of the routine tests for HIV patients.