African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 6 (3), pp. 263-266, 5 February 2007   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2007 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

Prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection among pregnant women in an ante-natal clinic in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria

Obi, R. K.¹*, Iroagba, I. I.² and Ojiako, O. A.³

¹Department of Industrial Microbiology, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo, State, Nigeria.

²Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, College of Health Sciences Madonna University Teaching Hospital, Elele, Rivers State, Nigeria.

³Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of technology, Owerri, Imo State Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: ewaensohan@yahoo.com

Accepted 21 November, 2006

Women attending ante-natal clinic in Nigeria are routinely screened for HIV/AIDS. A retrospective study was conducted between 2000 and 2004 to investigate the prevalence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection among pregnant women attending ante-natal clinic in Braithwalte Memorial Hospital (BMH), Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Data on positive cases of HIV infection within the duration were retrieved from the hospital’s record department. A total of 10,032 pregnant women were screened for the possible occurrence of HIV 1 and HIV 2 within the period. The results shows that a total of 595 (5.93%) of the pregnant women tested positive to the HIV. The year 2001 had the highest prevalence of 138 (1.38%), while the year 2000 had the least prevalence of 89 (0.89%). Analysis of the age distribution of the infection among the studied pregnant women in the hospital showed that women in the age group of 41-45 had the highest prevalence rate (80%), followed by women in the age group of 31-35 with an occurrence rate of 20.83%. The least rate of occurrence was observed in the age group of 26-30 which showed only 3.14%.

Key words: HIV prevalence, pregnant women, antenatal clinic.