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

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;/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<0.0001）. About half（50.8%） of co-infected patients had CD4;cell count≤200/μL,and majority（44.9%） of this population also had significant parasitemia.Anaemia and thrombocytopenia were not significantly associated with HIV-malaria co-infection（P>0.05）.Conclusions:The prevalence of parasitemia is high among the HIV/AIDS infected patients.