Prevalence of adenovirus respiratory tract and hiv co-infections in patients attending the University of Ilorin, teaching hospital, Ilorin, Nigeria

BACKGROUND: Adenovirus co-infections in HIV patients cause wide-spread morbidity in sub-Saharan Africa, but little research has documented the burden and distribution of these pathogens. This study was conducted between December, 2010 and March, 2011 to investigate the prevalence of Adenovirus Respiratory Tract and HIV co-infections in Patients attending the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital Ilorin, Nigeria. METHOD: One Hundred and Eighty Four (184) patients were recruited with confirmed HIV positive status. Investigation was done by serology using the Human Adenovirus IgG ELISA Kit to test for the presence of the Immunoglobulin G (antibody) against the virus. This was conducted and juxtaposed simultaneously with responses received from the questionnaires provided to each participant to correlate the relationship of the co-infections to their socio-demographic factors (Age, Gender, Occupation and location of residence), risk factors (Average hours of exposure per day (time spent outdoor daily), proximity of their apartments to livestock settlements), recent occurrence of respiratory tract infections/conjunctivitis and their ART status. RESULTS: This study recorded a prevalent rate of 38% (70 patients) to the co-infections. Nevertheless, 62% (114 patients) tested negative to the co-infections. CONCLUSION: There was statistical significance between the ages of HIV patients and Adenovirus co-infection (p < 0.05). However, there was no significance with respect to gender of the subjects (p > 0.05). The findings also showed that there were statistical significance for all the risk factors; Occupation, Location and Proximity to Livestock settlement, recent respiratory tract infection/conjunctivitis, and ART status in relation to Adenovirus and HIV co-infections (p < 0.05). ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1756-0500-7-870) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.