Hepatitis B and C infection in HIV-infected children and young adults attending HIV treatment centres in Calabar, Nigeria.

Introduction: Globally, approximately 2.7 million and 2.3 million people living with HIV are co-infected with hepatitis B and C virus, respectively. Relatively, little is known regarding HBV or HCV co-infection in HIV-infected children in Calabar, Nigeria, though the routes of transmission of the three viruses are similar. This study aimed to determine the seroprevalence and risk factors for HBV and HCV among HIV-infected children and young adults attending Paediatric HIV Care and Treatment Centres in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria.

Methodology: This was a cross sectional study involving 204 HIV-infected children and young adults aged 1-23 years attending four outpatient treatment centers. Blood samples were obtained and tested for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and HCV antibody (anti-HCV antibodies). Seroprevalence and factors associated with HBsAg were analyzed using Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: The mean age of the study participants was 13.20 ± 4.39 years. Overall, four study participants were positive for HBsAg, a seroprevalence of 2%, and none was positive for HCV-Ab. All positive study participants were females aged 11 years and above, and belonged to the low and middle socio-economic class, with no vaccination against HBV.

Conclusions: The seroprevalence of hepatitis B infection in this study was low, none of those positive received vaccination against HBV. In view of the public health importance of HBV infection, vaccination against HBV should be extended to children and young adults above 14 weeks of age in Nigeria.